Penny Garver

Penny Garver passed away peacefully, supported by family members, in her Brookline home on August 7, 2025.

Penny was born in 1948 in Bangor, Maine and grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. After graduating with honors in fine arts from the University of Chicago, she found her professional calling in commercial lending at the Shawmut Bank and continued in that role until her retirement from Santander Bank more than thirty years later. Her particular pleasure as a loan officer was to assist smaller, family owned companies in the development of their businesses and securing their families' futures.

Penny participated fully in the life of her community, including as a board member of Jewish Vocational Services, where she served as treasurer and board chair, and on the school committee and the board of Temple Ohabei Shalom, where she applied her financial acumen and personal leadership to the stabilization of its finances. Her involvement in both organizations and her banking background led her to Project Kesher, organized by Greater Boston volunteers to aid the remnant of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine's Jewish citizens. During three trips there she established a micro-lending program that assisted women without husbands in setting up small businesses to support themselves and their children.

In addition, Penny was a board member of the Immigrant Learning Center, served on the Chelsea Boys and Girls Club advisory committee and was a founder and treasurer of her family's charitable foundation, which focuses its gifts on addressing food insecurity, on services to immigrants and on education, particularly Berea College in Appalachia.

Penny and her husband Richard traveled extensively. Her greatest pleasure, however, was her children, son Josh and daughter Jennie, of whom she is enormously and justifiably proud. Her favorite memories included the times she and Richard spent with them as children each summer on beloved Block Island. A recent highlight was joining the family in its 2018 walk of the 1,000 year-old Spanish pilgrim trail, the Camino de Santiago. Josh and Jennie's devotion to each of their own two children is one of her legacies.

Penny is survived by her husband, her mother Anita and brother Peter, her son Joshua and daughter Jennie, their spouses Bethany and Jason, and their children, Alina and Miralyn, Alexander and Halcyon, whom it was her joy to see blossoming into such promising young people.

Funeral Services will be held on August 12, 2025, at 11:00 AM, at Temple Ohabei Shalom, 1187 Beacon Street, Brookline, with Interment at Sharon Memorial Park. Shiva following services at Temple Ohabei Shalom from 2 – 4:30 pm.

Gifts in her honor may be directed to Jewish Vocational Services or to the Brookline Food Pantry.