JANE MACMASTER WHEDON

STILLWATER and ORONO – Jane MacMaster Whedon, RN, died peacefully on Nov. 24, 2003, surrounded by her loving family. She was born April 17, 1919, in New York City, the daughter of Ronald Kellogg MacMaster and Lillian Allen MacMaster of Elizabeth, N.J. She was the great-granddaughter of Edward Kellogg, donor of Jackson, Jefferson, and Kellogg parks to that city, N.Y. Jane was a granddaughter of the Rev. Charles Allen of Trinity Episcopal Church in Elizabeth, where she was baptized by him, and was later a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabeth. Jane was a lay associate of the order of The Sisters of the Holy Nativity, and had been secretary to the late Very Rev. John Suter, Custodian of the Book of Common Prayer and later Dean of the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul (The National Cathedral) in Washington, D.C. She worked for and studied under Reinhold Niebuhr at the Union Theological Seminary, and was a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bangor, and of the Altar Guild of that Church. She graduated from the Vail-Deane School, Elizabeth, attended Bryn Mawr College, graduated from Wellesley College in 1940, and lived by that school’s motto, Non Ministrari Sed Ministrare. She received master’s degrees from Columbia University and the University of Maine, and her graduate nursing degree from Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, in 1948. Jane was assistant director of the School of Nursing, Elizabeth General Hospital, and served on the nursing school staffs of Eastern Maine Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing in Bangor. She worked in St. Joseph’s Hospice Program and in several substance abuse programs in the Bangor area. For her work in the Literacy Volunteers of America program she received an award from the hands of first lady Mrs. George Bush. Earlier she had been on the nursing staff of the Bangor Mental Health Institute, and in 1978 served as curriculum consultant to the Nursing School of the University of Hawaii, Hilo, Hawaii. Jane enjoyed her piano, painting, camping, swimming, tennis, boating, skiing and wilderness canoeing, as much as she did earning her degrees (B.A., R.N., B.S., M.E.d, M.S.), but mostly being a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She was a member of the Eastern Maine Wellesley Club. Jane is survived by her husband of 55 years, Ralph Gibbs Whedon Jr. of Stillwater and Orono; four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren: Ralph III and his wife, Lorna, of Portland, their children, Deborah and her husband, Manuel Fernandez, and their children, Thomas and Julian of Paris, France, and David and his wife, Joey, of California; Dr. James and his wife, Nancy, of New Hampshire, and his daughters, Sarah and Mehera; Katherine of Orono, and her sons, Robinson Marks and Patrick and Conall Molloy; Mary of Arundel and her sons, Dominic and Anthony LoGalbo; a brother, Ronald Kellogg MacMaster Jr. and his wife, Joan, of California; cousins, Mary Louise Sewell and Eliza Jane Catlin of New Jersey; a sister-in-law, Viola Whedon; a brother-in-law, Charles Whedon; and numerous nephews and nieces. Jane was predeceased by a brother, Charles Allen MacMaster of El Paso, Texas. A Requiem Eucharist will be celebrated 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28, 2003, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 225 French St., Bangor, with the Rev. Kevin Holsapple, Rector officiating. Interment will be in Riverside Cemetery, Orono. A service of Brookings-Smith, 133 Center St., Bangor.