Eleanor M Price

On Monday, December 8, 2025, Eleanor died in her home in Somerville, surrounded by her family.

Eleanor was born on April 30,1927 in Dublin, Ireland. The eldest of four girls, Eleanor defied norms of the day by graduating from University College Dublin with a degree in architecture. She first worked in London, which was recovering from the war and oNered few opportunities. Eventually, she landed in Zimbabwe, Rhodesia at the time, where one of her cousin’s lived, and found a position at a local firm.

A few years later, a family friend living in San Francisco encouraged her to move to CA. There she lived with an expat group of English and Irish professionals and met a lifelong American friend Barbara. When her Irish cousin Roddy, also an architect, oNered her his rent-controlled apartment (around the corner from the Guggenheim) she took the chance and flew to New York. There she met Donald Price, a lawyer from Minnesota. In 1966, she and Don married. They settled in Montclair, NJ, where they raised their children, John and Margaret. While living in Montclair, Eleanor did a master’s in architectural preservation at Columbia and led eNorts to preserve and document Montclair’s historical buildings. 

When they retired, they moved to Wilmington, NC. There, Eleanor worked for the historic  foundation and loved spending time with Don in the garden. After Don died, Eleanor moved to Cambridge to be close to her daughter Margaret, son- in-law Cador and grandchildren, Esmay and Powell. She rented in Cambridge until 2019 when she moved into Margaret and Cador’s two-family home. While in Massachusetts, Eleanor joined Harvard Learning in Retirement where she thrived in the intellectual and social community there. 

Up until this summer, Eleanor was going for walks around the neighborhood, shopping at the corner store and taking Ubers to appointments. She published her memoir “An Ocean Divides Me” this spring. People were generally astonished to hear her age. She was a marvel.

Eleanor leaves her son John Price and daughter-in-law Silvana Silveira of Los Angeles, her daughter Margaret Pricejones and son-in-law Cador Pricejones of Somerville , her grandchildren Powell Pricejones and Esmay Pricejones, her sister Esmay Rothschild and brother-in-law Michael Rothschild of Dublin, Ireland, and sister Ann Twiss of Portlaoise, Ireland.

A funeral mass will be held on Friday, December 19th at Saint Cecilia’s Church, 18 Belvidere Street, Boston at 10:00AM. 

Relatives and friends are invited to attend.