Perkins Co-Founder Was 'Elegant, Colorful Woman'

To hear her friends and contemporaries tell it, Sally Mumma Harral was the type of person, if you needed to get something big done, you wanted her on your side.

Jean Gaasch—who, along with Harral, Frank Keenan and Louis Matlack, founded back in the ‘70s—described her former cohort as a “larger-than-life character. She was very community-minded, very knowledgeable … She was very eager to throw her expertise into anything we were doing.”

at at the age of 99. A resident of Moorestown for more than 50 years, she was known around town for a number of reasons: her civic-mindedness, her involvement with Republican fundraisers, the festive parties she and her late husband, Brooks J. Harral, held at their home, The Beeches.

But perhaps Sally’s most notable legacy is her involvement in establishing Perkins Center as one of South Jersey’s premier arts organizations.

Each of the co-founders brought a particular talent to the table, Gaasch said, and the group took those individual talents and “blended them into one” for a unified effort.

“Sally was very instrumental,” said Gaasch. “She had a lot of social contacts. She seemed to know exactly who to call. We were lucky to have her involvement.”

Patricia Finio, a longtime board member at Perkins, said she attended the Encore Awards—a regional arts award ceremony—with Sally several years ago at Caesars in Atlantic City. Sally was receiving an award for her support of Perkins over the years.

Even in her advanced age, Sally was “lots of fun to be around,” said Finio. “She was always up for a good time … She was a very elegant, colorful woman.”

Finio credited Sally, along with Gaasch and the rest of the other co-founders, with rescuing the Perkins building. According to the Perkins Center website, the township, which owns the building and the land it sits on, was considering selling or demolishing the building in the early ‘70s before Sally, Gaasch and other concerned citizens came to the rescue.

“They saved that building from being torn down,” said Finio. “You can credit them with beginning one of the premier arts centers in the region.”

A memorial service for Sally will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Chapel of the Evergreens. Interment will be at the United States Naval Academy, where her husband and brothers attended.

Memorial donations may be made to the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, 401 Haddon Ave., Camden, NJ 08102, or Lighthouse Hospice.

Arrangements by . Condolences may be left at www.lewisfuneralhomemoorestown.com.