…Clinical Researcher at MIT and Children’s; 82
TEWKSBURY - Mrs. Norma Jean (Baker) Walsh, age 82, a medical researcher during most of her working career, died peacefully on Tuesday morning, February 8, at LGH Saints Campus, from medical complications of a fall. She had been in residence at Bayberry and later Peregrine’s Landing in Tewksbury with memory issues for the last three years. She was born into a privileged family on Governor’s Island in Laconia N.H. in August 1934, a daughter of the late Nora (Fecteau) and Sidney F. Baker, who were the owners of the Mt. Washington Steamship. She graduated from Laconia High School, and was a cum laude graduate of the University of New Hampshire and the Mary Hitchcock Hospital School of Technology, and elected into Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa Honor Societies.
She had lived in Arlington, Danvers, New York, and Falmouth before retiring to Tewksbury in 2006.
She began her career at the Clinical Bacteriological Laboratory at Children’s Hospital in Boston as a researcher and later chief technologist. She went on to M.I.T.’s Clinical Research Center, where she worked as an associate. She retired from Michael J. Crew in Falmouth, as a financial advisor.
She served on the Board of Directors for the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, and served as Secretary for Arlington League of Women Voters. In Falmouth, she served as a director and trustee of the Barnstable County Fair.
Norma Jean was wife for forty-five years of the late Richard J. Walsh who died in 2007. She leaves her sisters-in-law Catherine R. Walsh and Jane R. Coughlin both of Woburn; many nieces and nephews; and was predeceased by her sisters, Betty Jane King and Sally Ann Baker; brother-in-law, Thomas M. Walsh and his wife Bernadine.
Relatives and friends will be received Saturday morning, Feb. 11, from 10:00 until 11:00 a.m. in the Tewksbury Funeral Home, corner of 1 Dewey and 975 Main Sts. (Rte. 38) Tewksbury Center, Ph. (800 in MA or 978) 851 2950. Her Funeral Mass will follow at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday in St. William’s Church, 1351 Main St. (Rte. 38) Tewksbury. A spring burial will be in Laconia N.H. In lieu of flowers, memorial to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, P.O. Box, Dept. 142, Memphis, TN 38148-0142 www. stjude.org will be appreciated. tewksburyfuneralhome.com