Center Sandwich - Sarah W. Zuccarelli passed away unexpectedly at her home in Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, on March 12, 2026, at the age of 84. She was a well-known and cherished member of the Center Sandwich community.

She and her husband lived in Princeton, NJ, where they raised their two children and where she worked at the prominent LaVake Jewelers. She moved to Center Sandwich in 1981 and went on to serve as the resident director for Chapman Sanctuary & Visny Woods (CSVW), a nonprofit nature, bird and wildlife sanctuary, for 32 years, retiring in 2012/2013. During her tenure, she devoted herself to the care and stewardship of the sanctuary, helping to ensure it remained a welcoming and protected place for the community to enjoy.

Throughout her tenure as Resident Director, Sarah led countless educational nature and wildflower walks for adults, volunteer and community groups, as well as for local elementary school teachers and their students during class visits. The hundreds of thank you notes, drawings, and cards from Sandwich area students and teachers (all of which she saved carefully) are testament to her efforts to instill a love of nature in future generations. She also gave back to the town in many ways, including serving as a Cemetery Trustee, with her final elected term concluding around 2017.

Her legacy will live on not only in the perennial and pollinator gardens she planted to enhance the CSVW grounds around the historic Chapman House, but also in the gardens she designed and planted for many residents throughout the Sandwich area over the decades.

Her deep love of the natural world, vast knowledge of birds, singular personality, and her work at the sanctuary were also featured in two award-winning films produced by New Hampshire PBS Television: Saving Songbirds, which received a New England Emmy Award for Outstanding Environmental Program in 2012, along with national Telly Awards in the nature/wildlife and videography categories; and Bird Tales, which was nominated for a New England Emmy Award for Outstanding Environmental Program. These films are still shown on NHPBS and available for online viewing.

She loved deeply and generously, sometimes to a fault, and she truly never met a stranger. Sarah was a prolific writer and reader, and a fiercely loyal friend. She was an avid and passionate traveler, enjoying snorkeling in the USVI and carrying with her a lifelong love of horses that began in childhood and continued throughout her life, including during her trips to Wyoming. She particularly loved the Southwest and held a deep passion for Native American culture, spending years studying its traditions, beliefs, writings, and artistic expression, and collecting works created by Native American artisans with great respect and care.

She had a spirit that belonged outdoors. She loved the moon and the stars, her incredible gardens, and the flowering, fruit, and ornamental trees she planted everywhere she lived-many in honor of loved ones lost. Nature filled her heart in a way that was unmistakable to anyone who knew her.

Her loss is sudden and devastating for those who loved her. She was blessed with many dear friends and people whose lives she touched and enriched along the way. Those closest to her described her as "spectacular," "an inspiration," "a force of nature," "strong and independent," and "a tireless cheerleader and champion."

She will be deeply missed by her many friends and her family, including her loving daughter Lynn Austin and son-in-law Kenneth Austin; her stepbrother Joseph D. Whittemore III and his wife Joan; and her stepsister Sharon Richards-each of whom shared actively and devotedly in her life and held her close right up until her sudden passing.

She is predeceased by her husband Samuel P. Zuccarelli, Jr. in 1999, her mother Sarah "Sally" Whittemore in 2006, and her sister Katherine Whittemore in 2009.

Please hold Sarah in your thoughts when you see the moon, the stars, or a beautiful flowering tree or garden in bloom.

A Celebration of Life for Sarah will be held later this year in Center Sandwich. This will be a casual, open-house gathering by invitation for those who were part of her life and shared in her many adventures, to share memories, reflect, and honor her life in a place she loved. Details will be shared with invited guests as plans are finalized.

"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

In lieu of flowers, consider planting a tree in her honor wherever you live, or donating in her memory to New Hampshire PBS Television, the Nokota Horse Conservancy, or CSVW.