Jerome H. Weinstein, known as Jerry, died peacefully in his sleep on January 12th. He was 92 years old. Jerry was born May 13, 1928 in Brooklyn, N.Y. to Freida and Irving Weinstein. He grew up in Brooklyn and went to Brooklyn Tech High School and then to the City College of New York.
He served in the Korean war from 1950 to 1952 and then began his career in engineering. He taught thermo dynamics at the Newark College of Engineering and had summer jobs in many (rockets??) interesting engineering fields. His career brought him and his first wife to Lexington, Massachusetts in 1961 where they began raising their three children. Jerry worked for Thermo Electron, first in engineering, and later in human resources. Later in his career he made a transition to divorce mediation. Jerry and his first wife were active in the Lexington Civil Rights Committee and in action against the Vietnam war.
After a divorce in 1970, Jerry moved to Cambridge and became very active in the communal housing movement. Jerry and two friends bought a large house on Walnut Street in Newtonville and lived there communally with many others for the next 15 years. During these years Jerry became interested in practicing therapy and then in divorce mediation.
Jerry was the first divorce mediator in New England. He was also a founder of the Mass. Council on Family Mediation (MCFM). In 1976, Jerry and others created the Divorce Resource and Mediation Service - the first divorce mediation program in Massachusetts. In the late 1970’s, Jerry provided the first Massachusetts training in divorce mediation, and for many years, he co-taught “Divorce: With and Without a Lawyer” at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education with Oliver Fowlkes. Jerry had a private mediation practice and remained active in the MCFM for many years.
Jerry spent many happy years with his partner Ruth Kramer Baden. They were together for 17 years, until his death. They enjoyed travel, theater, symphony and their friends and families. Jerry spent a lot of time with his children and grandchildren and was a loving and devoted father and grandfather.
Jerry leaves behind his dear partner Ruth Kramer Baden of Newton, his children Julie Weinstein and her husband Steve Richmond of Sudbury and two grandsons, his son David Weinstein and his wife Lauren Ockene of Jamaica Plain and their two daughters, his son Ari Weinstein of Foxboro and his two children, and his sister Gloria Ledder and her husband Howard of Maryland, and their two daughters.
Donations can be made in Jerry’s memory to the City College of New York at https://giving.ccny.cuny.edu/