Obituary for Jolaine M. Allan (Rosenburger)
Jolaine Margaret Allan, age 79, died in her Cambridge, MA home on April 19, 2022. She is survived by Gerry, her husband of nearly 60 years, and her two sons, Rob of New York City, and Jim of North Billerica, MA.
Jolaine was born in Lethbridge, AB, Canada in 1942, to her mother Frances and her father Pete, a coal miner who immigrated from Poland in the early 1930’s. She was the youngest of their ten children. She grew up in Calgary, AB after her mother died, and went on to study hospital pharmacy at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. After graduation, she practiced for several years in a big city hospital and later for vaccine-maker Cutter Labs in Oakland.
She and Gerry moved to Vancouver in 1965, and then to San Francisco and Berkeley where Gerry worked for a major engineer-builder. Son Robert was born in Oakland CA in 1967, followed by son Jim in 1970. The family moved back to Calgary in 1971, and then to Boston in 1973 where Gerry was studying for a doctorate at the Harvard Business School.
While in Boston, and later in Newton, Jolaine began working actively as an artist, first with a soft-sculpture designer, and later with Brandeis art professor Paul Georges. Her primary teacher for several years was the well-known abstract expressionist painter Hyman Bloom, who turned Jolaine into a strong colorist like himself.
In 1998, Jolaine and Gerry moved to the Town of Mount Washington, MA in the Berkshires and began a nearly 20-year life in a 1780’s-vintage farmhouse. Her painting and drawing continued uninterrupted. She became close friends with several black bears and cubs who often kept her company while she was gardening and sketching.
The joyful mountain years came to an end in 2017 when she and Gerry moved to a townhouse in Cambridge, MA, adjacent to Harvard University.
Jolaine was a very private person in her life and her ashes will be spread by her family in her favorite place — near an old water well in Mount Washington, where she went almost daily to pray.
Jolaine was born in Lethbridge, AB, Canada in 1942, to her mother Frances and her father Pete, a coal miner who immigrated from Poland in the early 1930’s. She was the youngest of their ten children. She grew up in Calgary, AB after her mother died, and went on to study hospital pharmacy at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. After graduation, she practiced for several years in a big city hospital and later for vaccine-maker Cutter Labs in Oakland.
She and Gerry moved to Vancouver in 1965, and then to San Francisco and Berkeley where Gerry worked for a major engineer-builder. Son Robert was born in Oakland CA in 1967, followed by son Jim in 1970. The family moved back to Calgary in 1971, and then to Boston in 1973 where Gerry was studying for a doctorate at the Harvard Business School.
While in Boston, and later in Newton, Jolaine began working actively as an artist, first with a soft-sculpture designer, and later with Brandeis art professor Paul Georges. Her primary teacher for several years was the well-known abstract expressionist painter Hyman Bloom, who turned Jolaine into a strong colorist like himself.
In 1998, Jolaine and Gerry moved to the Town of Mount Washington, MA in the Berkshires and began a nearly 20-year life in a 1780’s-vintage farmhouse. Her painting and drawing continued uninterrupted. She became close friends with several black bears and cubs who often kept her company while she was gardening and sketching.
The joyful mountain years came to an end in 2017 when she and Gerry moved to a townhouse in Cambridge, MA, adjacent to Harvard University.
Jolaine was a very private person in her life and her ashes will be spread by her family in her favorite place — near an old water well in Mount Washington, where she went almost daily to pray.