Jane Chess Reif, formerly of Wellesley, passed away peacefully on April 27, 2021 in Durham, NC. She was 99 years old.

Jane was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 13, 1921, the youngest of six children.  She was an independent, inquiring spirit from early on, accompanying her brothers on extended rambles throughout their lovely Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Their home was the setting for extended family parties, notably Fourth of July fetes that featured homemade fireworks. Her father collected rare books; Jane loved to read as a girl and remained an avid reader throughout her life, favoring history and biographies.  Her father, Harvey Buchanan Chess II, died when she was 2 and her mother, Blanche Leard Chess, carried on as a single parent through the Great Depression and beyond.  Their affluent lifestyle was diminished, but they kept their home and made the best of things.

Jane attended Hollins College as a freshman, then transferred to the University of Wisconsin, where she majored in physics and mingled with future mathematicians and physicists. She discovered that physics was not her calling, and returned to Pittsburgh to get a BA in Sociology from Carnegie Tech.  She worked as a probation officer for Allegheny County after college.

In 1949, Jane married Arnold Reif, a young scientist at The Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh.  They moved to Madison, WI and then Albuquerque, NM.  Their three sons Bert, John, and Joseph were born in 1950, 1951 and 1953.  Life was busy.  (For a while, she had three little ones in diapers - though she said the diapers dried quickly in the hot, dry air of the southwest.) The family moved to Wellesley in 1957 for Arnold’s new job in a Boston lab. 

Jane embrace life as a stay-at-home mom.  She made the boys cheese-on-toast and tomato soup for lunch and invited each of their teachers for dinner once during the school year. She was an active room parent.

She was sociable, fun-loving and enjoyed the company of her neighbors and friends. Her freshman roommate from Hollins, Marianne Brinker, had coincidentally moved to Wellesley with her own young family and they continued their friendship for the rest of their lives.

Jane had fun exploring the Boston area and greater New England with her family.  Special memories include swimming at Morses Pond, wandering in Rocky Woods and around Waban Pond, visiting historical Concord, hiking in the White Mountains, canoeing on the Charles River.  She loved visiting gardens and museums; the Isabella Stewart Gardener was her favorite. Later she took her granddaughters, Katie and Emily, for rides on the Swan Boats in the Boston Garden and explored Elm Bank, in Natick, with them.

She was an active member of the Wellesley Congregational Church and made strong and lasting friendships there as well. She had a strong social conscience.  She taught typing classes to women from inner-city Boston, welcomed Russian families emigrating to the US, and generally befriended people who were in need of help. Following her divorce in 1965, Jane moved to another house in Wellesley with her sons, and there cultivated a lovely garden. She returned to work and spent many years as a secretary at The New England Home for Little Wanderers, in Boston where she was beloved by the staff.

Once her sons had gone to college, she opened her home to a series of roomers, which provided some extra income and kept things lively.  Later her sister Nancy and her brother Harvey shared her home as well.  Jane was happiest in the company of others.  She enjoyed lively conversations and always had interesting stories to tell.  She took joy in learning new things, enrolling in classes through the Wellesley Senior Center and auditing classes at Wellesley College. She spent many years studying her family genealogy and regaled us with fascinating stories of her early life and those who came before her.

She studied Russian literature and modern Chinese cinema.  In the evening, she could be found in her living room watching Masterpiece Theater on PBS or enjoying a silly Britcom. 

There was sadness in her life as well.  Two of her sons Joseph and Bert suffered from mental health issues and passed away in their mid-life. She never complained about her situation, though it must have been difficult at times.

One of her greatest joys was being a grandmother to her son John’s two daughters, Katie and Emily, born in 1989 and 1994.  She loved and nurtured them, visited them in North Carolina and relished their visits to her in Wellesley.  She shared her life and her stories with them, introduced them proudly to her friends and neighbors, and celebrated their special milestones.  They always felt at home with her at 3 Woodland Road, relaxed and welcome.

In 2010, Jane moved to The Falls at Cordingly Dam, in Newton, MA.  In 2014, following a stroke, she moved to Carolina Reserve, an assisted living facility in Durham, NC, to be near her son John and his wife Jane.  Her family thanks the staff at both places for their good care of Jane.