Lynda Gregorian Christian, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., J.D. was born on September 20, 1938, in Boston, Massachusetts to Arthur and Phebe Gregorian on the day of the great hurricane. She grew up on West Newton Hill and went to Northfield School for Girls. After Northfield, she followed her mother, aunt, and grandmother to Wellesley College.

Lynda met her future husband, John T. Christian, at a Wellesley College and MIT get-together. They played chess and discussed prepositions. From that moment on, they were devoted to each other. On June 6, 1960, two days after her graduation, John and Lynda married in Newton and had a reception in her parents’ backyard, which was carpeted in oriental carpets courtesy of her father. Lynda received a doctorate in Comparative Literature from Harvard in 1969, and she fully expected to be on a tenure track at an Ivy-league university. Little did she know that discrimination against women professors would hinder her ambitions. Her thesis advisor refused to refer female graduates for open positions When she went public with her complaint, Lynda became an important witness in an ongoing federal investigation of Harvard which ultimately resulted in the US military threatening to remove $5 million in research grants from Harvard University until such time as they could prove that female graduates were entering careers at the same rate as male graduates. After this, academic doors were no longer open to her.

In the early 1970’s, Lynda became active in the women’s rights movement. She was vice president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, a member of the Massachusetts chapter of NOW, and also became the founding President of the Massachusetts Organization to Repeal Abortion Laws (MORAL). MORAL became later became NARAL New England. As President of MORAL, Lynda debated choice around the state. She and her husband picketed the Massachusetts State House, chanting, “Not the church, not the state, women will decide their fate!” During this period, she taught both at Harvard and at Boston University, but knowing that she would only ever be an adjunct, she attended law school, receiving her J.D. from Boston University in 1976.

For 20 years, she practiced domestic law in Massachusetts. She was an active member of the Family Law Committees of the Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association. She was also active with the American Bar Association’s Commission to study in-vitro fertilization. In addition, she served on the Judicial Conduct Commission and was one of the first women to serve on the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Lynda was engaged in many other pursuits. With their mutual passion for music, John and Lynda were on the Handel and Haydn Society’s Board of Overseers from 1993 to 1998. Lynda also kept a notable collection of historic dolls, was active in local doll clubs, and wrote several published articles in doll magazines on creche figures, wax dolls, wooden dolls, and the history of women making dolls to fundraise for Union troops.

Lynda passed away on June 20, 2022, just a fortnight after John had died on June 5th. She is survived by her brother John Gregorian of Georgia, her son Douglas Christian of Virginia, her daughter Shirin Samiljan of California, and five grandchildren.