Jean S Donati

Jean Schabacker Donati, longtime resident of Williamstown, died May 5th, 2023. She was the daughter of Maud (Bailey) and H. Eric Schabacker, born November 13, 1926 in Erie, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Strong Vincent High School, she followed her violin teacher for a year at Colby Junior College (now Colby-Sawyer College) in New London, NH, followed by four years at Wheaton College in Norton, MA, where she held a variety of offices, co-edited The Wheaton News, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and from which she graduated with high honors in 1949. In the summer of 1947, she met her Renaissance man, Richard Donati, at Wellesley College, where they were both student assistants in a program for foreign students who planned to enter American colleges in the fall. They were married on June 24, 1949, and never fell out of love.

In that September they went to Paris, France, where Richard (Ric) earned his master's degree at the Sorbonne through Middlebury College. They returned the following summer to Stockbridge, MA, where Ric taught French in the high school, and they quickly started a family. In September of 1961, Ric took a leave of absence so that he, Jean and the five children they had by then could spend a year in Viareggio, Italy, where Ric chronicled their learning of Italian. With a new appreciation of bread, on their return Jean began baking fresh bread every day, a practice she continued for years.

In 1963 the family moved to Williamstown, where Ric taught French, coached soccer and directed plays at Mount Greylock Regional High School until his retirement in 1983. Ric was granted a sabbatical leave for 1975-1976, and he and Jean went with their two youngest sons to Arles, France, where Ric further studied French.

In 1966 Jean accepted a job at Williams College as manager of the Berkshire Symphony. Before long that turned into a full time position in the music department, a job that Jean truly loved, working with the students, the professors, and all the resident and visiting musicians. She retired in the fall of 1988.

First and foremost, Jean loved her family, but she had a lifelong commitment to volunteering, too. A member of the First Congregational Church, she sang in the choir for 50 years, and among other positions she was a deacon, clerk of the church, nursery school teacher, junior choir director, and member of Koinonia. She volunteered for more than 25 years at the North Adams Regional Hospital, was president of the Williamstown Community Chest, and was a board member of, or worked with, United Cerebral Palsy, the League of Women Voters, the American Cancer Society, the Red Cross bloodmobile, meals-on-wheels, and the Williamstown Chamber Music Society, An inveterate opera lover, she tried to attend every one of The Metropolitan Opera's HD-TV performances, and at one point she and a friend obtained nearly 300 signatures for a petition to have them presented in Williamstown.

Although she always described herself as a "terrible housekeeper," she happily opened her house and family dining room to a long list of family, friends and strangers, including missionaries from Hawaii, a family through the ABC program who became good friends, young people with Ciao, Italia!, Fresh Air, America Sings, and Circus Smirkus, and countless musicians, famous or less so.

After her first trip abroad with Ric, Jean fell in love with Italy in particular and traveling in general. In addition to many wonderful trips including a number of Elderhostels (now Road Scholar) in the United States, she made some 20 trips to Europe with a variety of family and friends, and she counted them among her many blessings. In 1992, she and Ric escaped from a hotel fire in Inverness, Scotland, losing absolutely everything except the night clothes they were wearing, an event they ultimately considered a positive one because of the extraordinary kindness, helpfulness, and generosity they encountered. In an unfounded gesture of optimism, she renewed her passport in April, 2021.

In 1996 Jean began meeting once a week with some friends to practice speaking Italian, and "il gruppo" continued until the pandemic ended it. At home for years she did crossword and other puzzles. She couldn't help being a proofreader and a grammarian for author friends, the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce, and church publications, but had an equally helpless admiration for experts in using computers and technology.

Others besides her beloved husband, who died from cancer in 1994, and parents who predeceased her, were sister Mary Krimmel and her husband John, brother Robert, and sister Elizabeth Beckman and her husband Charles. She is survived by her children: Lisa (Paul) Mayer, Gianni, Nina, Cino, Martino (Anne Kennerley), and Stefano; a growing number of beloved grandchildren and great-grandchildren, sister Sarah Rodenberger and her husband Bruce, many dear nieces and nephews, sister-in-law Betty Barchet Schabacker, "honorary children" Laura and Stephen Dankner, and numerous dear friends, to whom she was grateful for the love and attention they showed, particularly in her last years, which were complicated by Parkinson's disease.

Jean requested that her body be given to Albany Medical College, after which her ashes will join Ric's in Williamstown's Eastlawn Cemetery. A memorial service will be announced at a later date.