Jean Bunker Chalmers

Hanover, N.H. — Jean Bunker Chalmers died Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, at 88 years old. Jean was born Oct. 20, 1927, in Madison, Wisc. where her father William E. Chalmers was on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin while also working as a union organizer in the steel industry. The family moved to Geneva, Switzerland in 1936 and spent three years there while Jean’s father served as the International Labor Organization’s representative to the League of Nations. In 1939 they returned to Washington DC where her father was in the Dept. of Labor. Jean attended Woodrow Willson High School in D.C. and then earned her BFA at Rhode Island School of Design. She met and was married to Joseph Schwarz in graduate school at University of Illinois. She suspended her education to raise children, moving to Ohio and then to Athens, Georgia in 1957. While in Georgia, Jean was active in the League of Women Voters, and the Human Relations and Welfare board. From 1964 to 1965, she and her family lived in Florence, Italy. After they returned to Georgia, she attended the University of Georgia Law School, graduating with only three other women in her class in 1968. After a divorce, Jean made her home in Rockland, Maine in 1972, a place she loved dearly, joining John Knight in his law practice and becoming his law partner in short order.

She was dedicated to community service. While in Rockland, Jean served on numerous boards and in various capacities with great energy and enthusiasm — including as director to Habitat for Humanity, secretary to her synagogue Adas Yoshuron, Director of Lincoln Street Center for the Arts, president of Mid-Coast Mental Health board, and director of ParentWorks. She was elected to many positions locally and statewide including Rockland City Council, Mayor of Rockland and Senator for the state of Maine in 1985-1986. She championed Parentworks and the rights of battered women. She was honored by the Maine Bar Association with the Dana Award in 1989 for humanitarian work as a lawyer. It was a great honor for her when the governor of Maine marked January 13, 2007 as Jean Chalmers Day in gratitude for the legacy of service for her beloved state.

She relocated to Hanover for her last years. She resided in Quail Hallow for many years, then was a resident in Hanover Terrace Nursing Home for two years, where she received professional and compassionate care. A week before she died, she commented to a nurse’s aide “it’s people like you that make this such a good place.” She remained generous of spirit to the end.

Jean leaves a large family of four children and seven grandchildren who loved her greatly and will always remember her: David Bard Schwarz, his wife Ania Bard of Denton, Texas, and grandson Jakob Schwarz of Dallas,Texas; Dina Schwarz Fisher, her husband Tim Fisher of Hartford, Conn., and granddaughter Avital Wenger of Washington, DC and grandson Etan Wenger of Los Angeles, Calif.; Jonathan Schwarz and his partner Victoria Skydancer of San Diego, Calif.; and Adam Schwarz, his wife Gail Rickards of Hanover; and grandchildren Maxwell, Samuel, Lois and Diana Rickards Schwarz. She is also survived and will be sorely missed by her brother Douglas Chalmers and his wife Janet Chalmers of New York, N.Y.; her sister Meg Chalmers and her wife Judy Young of Fort Meyers, Fla.; and her sister Tiela Chalmers and partner Nancy Stewart of San Francisco, Calif.

The family will hold a memorial honoring their beloved mother/mother-in-law/grandmother Jean Chalmers in Rockland, Maine at a later date.