Esther Frances Nikolaj

Esther Frances Nikolaj, 85, passed peacefully, February 18, 2023. Esther was born to the late Francis “Frank” and Theresa “Tess” Stecak Hispanski on October 7, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York. During her IT/software career, Esther started programming computers back in the 1970’s when computers were the size of rooms and used punch cards to program them. She progressed in her career by learning more advanced software programs and was a programmer for Raymond Corp. She became a Technical Writer and worked for Wang and Northrup Grummen. By the end of Esther’s career, she was doing consulting work for Allen Systems Inc. Esther loved to travel and took two trips to Israel. And one missionary trip to St. Petersburg, Russia and abroad. Esther was devoted to her faith. She grew up with the Catholic church. Later in life she went to seminary school, graduated, and became a deacon in the Episcopal dioceses. After examining her heritage, Esther found that she had past relatives in Europe that were Jewish. With this information, Esther started studying Hebrew and joined the neighborhood synagogue where she helped teach children and adults. During her religious journey she changed her Catholic birth name from Theresa to her biblical name of Esther.

Funeral Services will be private.

She is survived by her daughters, Terrye Boyce, Valerie Massie and husband, Rick, Paula Berquist, Monica Hernandez and husband, Ariel, Melissa McMahon and husband, Tim, and Bryan Nikolaj and wife, Jami Carmona; 13 grandchildren; 9 great grandchildren; and her ex-husband, Zan Nikolaj.

In addition to her parents, Esther was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Tara Newman and sisters, Marion and Frances Hispanski.