Kristine Gerson Obituary
STORRS
Kristine Sheathelm Gerson passed away peacefully in her home on June 23, 2025. Her death followed a long period of enduring a brutal lymphoma. She remains a beautiful young woman in the eyes of her loving family and wonderful friends.
Kristine was born in Colorado Springs, CO, on January 26, 1957. She spent her early years in Lansing, MI, alongside her brother Kurt before moving to Storrs, CT, during elementary school. Her father taught at the University of Connecticut, & her mother taught in the Mansfield Public Schools. It was in Storrs that she met and fell in love with her husband, Bill. She initially attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but after deciding that teaching was her future, she transferred to Wheelock College in Boston, MA. After graduation, she and Bill married, and she moved to Baltimore, MD, to be with him during his medical school years. They lived at the Garrison Forrest School as dorm parents. Teaching was her professional passion. She taught first in Rockville, MD, where she taught both art and special education. She then taught in the Baltimore Public Schools in a self-contained special education classroom in south Baltimore until she had her first child, Zachary, and the new family moved to Boston. She spent six years in Boston while Bill was at the Children's Hospital, and the family added two more sons, Jacob and Elijah, while also running a home daycare. The family moved to Charlotte, VT, in the summer of 1988 when Bill joined Pediatric Medicine in South Burlington. Their fourth son, Abraham, was born soon after the move. Kristine continued to provide home daycare in Charlotte, taught at the religious school at Temple Sinai in South Burlington, and gave back to her local community by founding, along with her friend, Marty Ditchey, the Charlotte Food Shelf, for which she was later honored as Volunteer of the Year by the town.
Kristine went on to teach first and second grade at Charlotte Central School for twenty years until her illness and the Covid-19 pandemic necessitated her early retirement. She made true friends among her colleagues and wishes to thank them, especially Peggy Coutu, Kathy Lara, and Rookie Manning, for the love they showed her as her disease progressed. At Charlotte Central School, she treasured her work as the school union representative and was especially thankful for the love and support she received during her illness from her district union colleagues, Kristine and Bill also want to express thanks for the excellent care, both compassionate and wise, provided by Dr. Paul Unger and Stephanie Pevear in Burlington, VT, and Dr Jeremy Abramson at MGH and to the nurses on Lunder 10 at MGH where she underwent two cellular transplants and multiple treatment protocols. She was excited about contributing to medical science and enjoyed meeting the dedicated research and care teams. The care Kristine received at end-of-life from UVM Home Health and Hospice was truly caring. Abby Foulk and her husband Mort Wasserman, longtime friends and colleagues, were essential supports as she navigated her last years. While she excelled as a teacher, her family and community of friends defined her the love, travel, and just the fun of it all. Married for almost 50 years, her loving family - husband, four sons, four daughters-in-law, and six grandchildren was a constant joy. They are all heartbroken by their loss. Her father, Herb, and his wife, Beverly, were extraordinary hosts to the entire family for weeks at a time for many decades at their homes in Maine and Arizona. Lifelong friends, Jack and Sue Rome are special, and as they vacationed together as a family for forty years, they are indeed family. Alan Guttmacher enticed Bill and Kristine to move to Vermont after they had spent years together at Boston Children's Hospital, and he and his wife, Bridgid, have also been a part of the family since. The now-retired partners at Pediatric Medicine are also family, and they loved and nurtured both Kristine and Bill. She was so thankful to have been a part of that family Tom and Lorna Bates, Buzz and Donna Land, Delight and Jack Long, and Deb and Thom Hartswick. Kristine was also very grateful to the current partners and staff at Pediatric Medicine for their accommodations necessitated by her prolonged illness. Kristine was an individual of great beauty, humor, strength, compassion, and a deep commitment to caring. She loved her series of family dogs: Pugs, Shumba and Nyabo, Mazel, and her last Tootsie and Ollie. She was an avid knitter and reader, particularly as her illness became more limiting when she would produce treasure troves of knitting creations and read hundreds of books each year. She was dedicated to nature and will be missed by the wide variety of birds that daily visited her yard at home, bringing Kristine and whoever was visiting happiness at the most difficult of times. Her family and friends will profoundly feel her enduring legacy. Instead of flowers, her family asks that contributions be made in her name to the Charlotte Library and the National Audubon Society.
She is survived by her sons, Zachary Gerson and his wife, Kristin (Ducrest) and their three children, Eloise, Samuel, and Lilly of Wynnewood, PA; Jacob Gerson and his wife, Maria Gabriela Morgade Yllera of Valladolid, Spain and their son, Manuel Gerson Morgade; Elijah and his wife, Sara Johnson-Cardona and their children, Louis and Santiago, of St. Louis, MO; and Abraham Gerson and his wife, Alicia (Lorre) of Avignon, France; her parents, Herbert Sheathelm and his wife, Beverly Kelton of Tucson, AZ, and her mother, Shirlee Sheathelm of Newington, CT; her brother, Kurt Sheathelm and his wife, Marjie of Rocky Hill, CT; her brother-in-law, Elliot Gerson & his wife, Jessica Herzstein of Washington D.C. and Aspen, CO; and her sister-in-law, Annie Swanson and her husband, Russ of Sherman, CT; many nieces and nephews as well as close extended family Ellen and John O'Shaughnessy of Ellington, CT. Steve and Beth Gerson of
Hampton Bays, NY.
Kristine Sheathelm Gerson
Published by the Chronicle on Jun. 26, 2025.