JOAN THERESA DOWLING MCCORMICK

1929 - 2018

McCORMICK, Joan Theresa Dowling Of Hingham, passed away on August 5, 2018 after a long illness. She was born on October 15, 1929, in the Manhattan borough of New York City to Timothy and Margaret Burke Dowling and taken home on the day of the famous Stock Market Crash. A gifted student, she won the Mooney Medal for the best essay of all the students in New York City as an eighth grader and she placed second in history in a national competition in high school. She went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude from Fordham University's School of Education and later earned an MA at Columbia University's Teachers College, where she was elected to Phi Lambda Theta, and completed work towards a PhD. She eventually taught history and served as a Guidance Counselor at James Monroe High School in the Bronx, inspiring some of the city's poorest students.

On a lucky Labor Day weekend in 1955 at Spring Lake, New Jersey, she met Bill McCormick, who was General Sales Manager at WOR Radio. He carried the scrap of paper with her number in his wallet until his death in 1995. After marrying in 1957, Bill's career took them to Boston in 1960, where he first served as General Manager of WNAC-TV (Channel 7) and then later formed companies that owned and operated radio stations. In 1977, Joan returned to work at a speakers' bureau and she too eventually formed her own company, representing such prominent individuals as Henry Kissinger, Martha Stewart and Neil Armstrong.

Joan and Bill raised their family in Weston, MA, and their beloved Osterville, MA. In 2005, ten years after her husband's death, she moved into Linden Ponds in Hingham.

Her husband, her parents, and her brothers Edward and John predeceased her. She is survived by her children Jean Marie of Alexandria, VA, Patricia (Charles) DiGiovanna of Cincinnati, Joanie Hosp of Cohasset, MA, William of Weymouth, MA; her grandchildren Shane and Meghan DiGiovanna, Reid and Samantha Hosp; her sister-in-law Eileen Dowling of Weehawken, NJ; nephew-in-law Dennis (Cyetta) McCormick of Wellesley, MA; nieces Eileen and Madeleine Dowling of New York, Elizabeth Dowling of Philadelphia, Timothy (Elizabeth) of Rye, NY; and her best friend of almost 60 years, Lee Schorr of Boston, MA. Donations in her honor may be made to the EB Research Partnership (ebresearch.org) or simply give a few dollars or even just a smile, as she always did, to someone who needs it. Services are private.