Ella Jo Regan, 86, died peacefully on Monday, July 18, 2022 at the Jack Byrne Hospice Center in Lebanon, N.H.

Ella Jo was born in Saginaw, Michigan on March 30, 1936 to Harold and Dorothy (Webb) Robinson. She grew up alongside her two older sisters and two younger brothers on their farm in Albee Township, graduating from Arthur Hill High School in 1954. Ella Jo studied Liberal Arts and Education at Albion College, graduating in 1958. She attended summer classes at Middlebury College in Vermont before moving to Massachusetts, where she taught elementary school in Wellesley and Cambridge. Ella Jo married Stephen Regan (1943 – 1991) in 1969; their son Matthias was born in November of that year. In 1970, they moved to Pittsfield, N.H., where their daughter Rachel was born in February, 1973. They moved to Gilmanton, N.H. in 1974 and divorced the following year.

From 1978 to 1996, Ella Jo taught English at Gilmanton School. She was an innovative, “hands on” teacher, fondly remembered by hundreds of students. She was instrumental in forming the first teacher’s union at Gilmanton School and in negotiating contracts for her colleagues. Throughout her career, she brought teaching out of the classroom, organizing countless field trips and camping trips for her students, becoming the school’s first 8th grade advisor, and providing additional mentoring and support whenever she saw the opportunity.

Ella Jo was also an active member of Gilmanton public life, serving several terms on the Gilmanton Board of Selectmen (2004-2007) and School Board (2011-2013). Her love of community was also expressed through her involvement at St. James Episcopal Church in Laconia, N.H., where she was a lay reader for many years. In 2013 Ella Jo returned to Michigan, where she lived with her sister Nancy in Mount Pleasant. She continued to make “good trouble,” volunteering for the Good News Garden and Restoration House shelter of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Ella Jo was a loving mother and grandmother who spent her free time gardening, baking, dog walking, bird watching, quilting, and traveling with friends and family. She loved museums and cafes, walks in the woods and tending to her gardens. She biked and hiked across England and Scotland with her children, traveled extensively across the U.S. with her corgi, and visited the Great Wall of China with her nieces.

Ella Jo was predeceased by her sister Carol Hare and her daughter Rachel Robinson. She is survived by her sister Nancy Robinson, her brothers Paul Robinson and Larry Robinson, her son Matthias Regan, and her grandson Damien Robinson.

Memorial services will be held at St. John's Episcopal Church in Mount Pleasant, MI on Saturday 30 July at 1:00 pm. 

A celebration of Ella Jo's life and that of her daughter Rachel Robinson (Feb. 21, 1973 - July 5, 2022) will be held in Gilmanton, N.H. later in the summer. Details will be posted here.

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