Hennessey, Jean, 1927-2004
Dates
- Existence: 1927 - 2004
Biography
Jean Hennessey (1927- 2004). Born in Seattle. Graduated from Vassar College in 1948. She was a resident of Hanover, New Hampshire for 47 years, where she began her political involvement serving on the Hanover Planning Board, and as president of both the local chapter of the League of Women Voters and the NH-VT Economic Development Council. She was eventually appointed to chair the Governor’s Commission on Natural Beauty, was the first executive director of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Affiliated Trusts, and served as president of Women & Foundations/Corporate Philanthropy. In 1978, she was appointed to the International Joint Commission- US and Canada by President Carter. In 1982, she became a research fellow on Dartmouth’s Environmental Studies faculty and was the first Director of the College’s Institute on Canada and the US. In 1994, President Clinton appointed her a trustee of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She was also involved with and served on the boards of the Population Research Center, the NH Civil Liberties Foundation, the Environmental Law Institute, the World Environment Center, the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, the Center for Northern Studies, the NH Commission on the Status of Women, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Montessori School in Hanover, the NH Rhodes Scholar Selection Committee, the Advisory Committee on the Selection of a Federal District Court Judge, and the NH Air Pollution Control Commission. In 1974, she received the Granite State Award for Public Service from the University of New Hampshire, and in 2003 she received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from the New Hampshire Democratic Party. She died at Mary Washington Memorial Hospital on June 9, 2004, as a result of complications from cancer.