Jean Eaton Claflin

Jean Eaton Claflin of Needham, MA died peacefully in her home on January 21, 2022.  She was 92 years old.  She was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Bruce Claflin, and she is survived by her children, Lynne Claflin, Ginger Nordal, and Bruce Claflin, Jr., six grandchildren, one great grandchild, and her pug dog Cindy.

Jean was born in Boston, MA to Ernest and Florence Eaton and graduated from Girls Latin School in Boston in 1947.  She earned a Baccalaureate of Arts degree in mathematics from Boston University in 1951 and a Masters of Library Science degree from Simmons College in 1956.  She worked for six years as a librarian at Boston Public Library followed by a term as staff librarian at MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Mitre).  After taking time to raise her children, she returned to work at Advanced Automation and subsequently was the third employee hired at MicroMedia, Inc., a small record preservation company in Needham, on the strict condition that she be allowed to take summers off to spend with her family at their cottage in Maine.

Jean was interested in genealogy and loved meeting and getting to know all of her cousins and extended relatives whenever there was a large family gathering.  She raised pugs and showed them competitively with her mother Florence.  She was an avid fisherwoman and loved nature in all forms including gardening, bird watching, and raising monarch butterflies from caterpillars that she found on milkweed plants.  Jean and Bruce would take the family out nights to watch meteor showers and drive them all over the country rockhounding or chasing eclipses.  Jean was always curious, an avid reader, loved puzzles of all kinds, and was always game to play whist or bridge.  She played violin through her years at Girls Latin School and renewed her interest later in life, playing with the Town Orchestra in partnership with the String Program in the Needham public schools.  Jean was also a strong advocate and vigorous supporter of food banks, social justice causes, nature, wildlife, conservation, the environment, Native American peoples, and U.S. military veterans.

In place of a funeral, a celebration of Jean’s life will be held at a later date in 2022. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to any food bank, PBS, or the Southern Poverty Law Center.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Jean Eaton Claflin, please visit our floral store.