Jean Oliver Leiserson

LEISERSON, JEAN OLIVER Jean Oliver Leiserson, 87, died peacefully in her sleep on October 27, 2012, in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. She was a world citizen who loved music, child education, politics, family ski vacations, sailing, cooking, and researching her family's genealogy. Born Jean Gardner Oliver on June 9, 1925, in Newton, MA, to Warren W. Oliver and Alice M. Graves Oliver, Jean earned a B.A. (1947) and an M.A. (1948) from Mount Holyoke College. She raised five children in multiple countries: Norway, Pakistan, Switzerland, and the USA (New Haven, CT, and Northern Virginia, where she worked as a Day Care Licensing Specialist.). The wife of the late Mark Leiserson, an Economics professor at Yale who later worked at the ILO and World Bank, Jean enriched the lives of others in the role of organizer and teacher. She was the children's choir director at the New Haven Unitarian Society; taught second grade in New Haven and Karachi, Pakistan; organized popular monthly sing-along series at her condominium in Arlington, VA, and at The Canterbury Episcopal Home Community in RPV; and was a member of the Pacific Unitarian Church in RPV. Jean is survived by five children, Steven G. Leiserson (Hania) of El Cajon, CA; Charles E. Leiserson (Wendy) of Cambridge, MA; Diane Leiserson (Paul) Hayden of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA; Ruth Leiserson (Lew) Hollman of Los Angeles; and William M. Leiserson (Janet McCarty) of North Haven, CT; by 13 grandchildren; and by her sister Ruth Allen of Rockport, ME. A memorial service is planned for November 10 at 2 p.m. at The Canterbury, 5801 Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes. Her remains will be interred at a service in Salem, CT, at a date to be determined. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Samhati, 8602 Aqueduct Road, Potomac, MD 20854 (http://samhati.org).