Jean Menapace died peacefully in her sleep, of natural causes, in Marin County, CA on February 20, 2023.

Jean was born in 1948 in New York to parents Edward Menapace (1910-1997) and Grace Kerns (1911-2006). She is survived by her devoted “sistaire" Martha Lawlor (b. 1943) whose close relationship meant the world to her. She attended Wellesley College (‘70), and later earned her master’s degree at Stanford (’71). For many years she taught math in middle school and high school, both in Cambridge, MA, where she lived for much of her life, and later in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she moved to be closer to her beloved family.

As a teacher, she loved designing new imaginative ways to present curriculum to her students and was involved, for many years, with Harvard’s school of education, training teachers and continuing her own exploration of the craft. She loved problem solving whether it was a complicated math problem, sudoku, puzzle or game, preferring to share in collective accomplishment rather than individual competitiveness.

A devout Catholic her entire life, Jean expressed her spirituality through song, becoming active in church choirs and playing folk guitar in mass, and piano. Her love of music extended into her work, where she poured much of her time into school musicals, even designing and sewing elaborate costumes for entire ensembles.

Though she had no children of her own, she was a devoted auntie and gave lots of her time to young people through her life tutoring and mentoring. Family was everything to Jean and she spent the last decades of her life here in Marin with us all.

She was preceded in death by her partner Jeremy Cott and is survived by her sister Marty, brother-in-law Bill, nieces Cynthia and Amy, nephews Jacob and Nathaniel, as well as 8 great-grandnieces and nephews. A celebration of life will be held in early July at St. Paul’s Parish in Cambridge, MA.   

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