Dona Kemp, aged 82, died on Saturday, June 24 in Newton-Wellesley Hospital, following a sudden, very large brain hemorrhage on the previous day. She had in recent years been challenged by gradually increasing Parkinson disease symptoms and cognition issues.
Dona Marie MacNeil was born in New York City on September 17, 1940, as the second child of the late Donald C MacNeil (born Antigonish, Nova Scotia) and Teresa (Gallagher) MacNeil. She grew up in Tenafly, NJ, and was educated at the Academy of the Holy Angels (Fort Lee, NJ), Chestnut Hill College (PA), and Jackson College of Tufts University, from where she graduated in 1962 with a degree in mathematics. She spent the following year volunteering as a math teacher at the Montgomery (AL) Catholic High School. There she befriended and shared a house with Mary Jo Kopechne, who also was fulfilling a year of religiously-motivated service, and they later were briefly roommates in Washington, DC.
After Alabama, Dona taught at Western High School (Georgetown) and Anacostia High School in DC, where she worked to relate and coordinate the math curriculum with those for her students’ other science courses. Between the two schools, she spent a year (1966/67) in New York City studying for her master’s degree in mathematics and science education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
In 1972 she moved from classrooms to public policy research (focusing on secondary education) when she joined the Program Evaluation practice at The Urban Institute, an independent, non-partisan Washington “think tank” examining federal, state, and local policymaking. There she met her husband-to-be: Michael Kemp, a survey researcher and senior member of the Institute’s Transportation Studies program.
Michael, a British native, had moved to Washington to gain what he had intended to be a couple of years of professional experience before expecting to return to London . . . but a life spent with Dona presented a much more attractive prospect. They married in September 1975 in St Alban’s Episcopal Church in Washington, and their daughters Catherine and Elizabeth (Liz) were born in 1977 and 1979 respectively, while living in the northern Virginia suburbs. Dona devoted herself to being a fulltime mother, family manager and homemaker, occasional private math tutor, and passionate volunteer.
In September 1984 the family moved to Wellesley, MA, where Dona quickly immersed herself in the community. She volunteered “math enrichment” coaching at the Fiske elementary school. Dona was a Board member of the Wellesley League of Women Voters, where she focused on voters’ service work and served as President of the Wellesley League from 1990 to 1992. She subsequently chaired the Local League Services committee of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, and was President of the state League from 2001 to 2003.
Within the town of Wellesley, Dona was an elected Town Meeting Member for 28 years (1991 to 2019), and served as a member and vice chair of the town’s Advisory Committee (budget committee) from 1994 to 1997. She had a strong interest in affordable housing, and was a Director (and Board Secretary) of the Wellesley Housing Development Corporation from its inception in 2002 to 2020. She also served on the Board of The Wellesley Club. In 2007, Dona was nominated by the Wellesley Select Board as the town’s “unsung heroine” at an annual State House award ceremony under the ægis of the Commonwealth’s Commission on the Status of Women.
At Wellesley’s St Andrew’s Episcopal church, Dona once chaired the annual Bargain Haul, and she supervised Bargain Haul recycling activities for many years. She was an enthusiastic and diligent member of the parish’s knitting ministry. Alongside her work in the community, Dona loved travel, reading avidly, word and number puzzles, and attending Boston Philharmonic concerts and Boston theater productions.
Dona never knew “a stranger,” making connections at the playground, in restaurants, or on line at the grocery store. All who knew her remember her as wise, warm, fun, thoughtful, intelligent, and funny. Most of all, she is remembered for her devotion to her husband, children and extended family, and her ready and constant ability to consider, empathize with, and welcome those around her.
Dona was predeceased by her parents, and sister Mary Ann Killinger. She is survived by her devoted husband Michael; her daughter Catherine Kemp Hines (and son-in-law Kevin Hines and grandson Cameron Michael Hines) of Maplewood, NJ; her daughter Liz Kemp (and grandson Miles Thomas MacNeil Kemp) of Easthampton, MA; her brother Donald J MacNeil (Julie MacNeil) of Rancho Santa Fe, CA; her sister Terese Kathleen McFarlane (R Barrie McFarlane) of Atlanta, GA; her brother Ronald C MacNeil of Albuquerque, NM; and brother-in-law Scott Killinger of Flourtown, PA.
Dona’s funeral will be held at 2:00pm on July 21, 2023 at St Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 79 Denton Road, Wellesley. Immediately after the service, her ashes will be interred in the memorial rose garden outside the church. A reception to remember Dona will then follow at the Babson Executive Conference Center, One Snyder Drive, Babson Park. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Parkinson’s Foundation or to St Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Wellesley.
For the benefit of those unable to attend the funeral in person, the service – but not the outside interment or the subsequent reception – will be livestreamed (and a recording subsequently made accessible) through the church’s website.