Lee Firestone Dunne

Nov 18, 1929 - August 15, 2023

Lee Firestone Dunne passed away in Barcelona, Spain on August 15, 2023, surrounded by her children. She was 93 years old. Lee had been visiting her family in Europe when she contracted a severe form of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Lee (born Shirley Anne Firestone) was born to Thelma and Walter Firestone in 1929 and raised in Canton, Ohio. She and her younger brother John spent much of their childhood living at the Stark County Home, where her father was the Director. The County home had a working farm, and Lee became an accomplished equestrian, competing in horse shows all over the Midwest in the 1930´s. Lee’s focus transitioned in high school from the farm to the floorboards. She developed a passion for acting, matriculating at Northwestern University from 1947-51, touring the US in a two person show with Hal Holbrook, and earning a Fulbright that took her to Cannes and London, where she studied the Alexander technique with Matthias Alexander just before his death. She spent a decade in NYC studying (alongside Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando and Paul Newman) at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. Lee also earned a master's degree in Audiology at Hunter College in New York City.

In 1966, with husband Arthur, she moved her growing family to Scituate, Mass. Lee worked for thirty years in the theater department at Bridgewater State College (now Bridgewater State University), where she also founded the Women’s Studies program. In addition to acting and directing at the college, Lee was active in South Shore community theaters, sometimes co-opting her friends to fill out the cast.

In 1976, a colleague introduced Lee to the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), which was the perfect place for her as a creative, a performer and an academic to share her love and wisdom, and recharge her formidable battery; which her husband and children were adept at draining. Lee volunteered as a facilitator at CPSI for more than three decades, and served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Creative Education Foundation (CEF) from 1997-2001. Starting in the mid-2000s, she also contributed her creative talents to the European Creativity Conference (CREA), where she was appreciated for many things, among them creating a “reflection room” for people to rest and recharge during the dynamic conference.

Lee also brought her creativity to the page, publishing her poetry, most notably Cocktail Shaker (2009) and Life in the Poorhouse (2013). She also contributed poems to several anthologies, including Rough Places Plain: Poems of the Mountains (2005) and Bosque Rhythms (2014).

She fed her passion for the stage by working with young people from underserved urban communities at the Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts, where she volunteered for over a decade starting in 2000.

Lee´s home was always open. She offered her spare room to many people over the years, and somehow always had space and energy for what others needed. She found the amazing, the wondrous and the remarkable in each person she met. She approached every interaction or situation with curiosity, empathy, non-judgment, and an open mind. Lee was endlessly creative, eccentric, uninhibited, adventurous, and cared deeply for people and for nature. (One of the ways this manifested was in the form of a tenacious litterbug-chaser. Yes, there are stories.)

Lee is survived by her four children: Christopher of Frieburg, Germany; Timothy of Barcelona, Spain; Andrew of Sandwich, MA; and Ellen of San Francisco, CA, as well as eight grandchildren. She is predeceased by her husband, Arthur (1981) and brother, John H. Firestone (2021).

Her family was with her when her bright light extinguished. The loving spirit she kindled continues to burn in the thousands of students, friends, colleagues and family, on whose souls a piece of her very own amazing energy is imprinted.

If you would like to make a donation in Lee’s memory, please consider a gift to www.summerstars.org 

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