Gemette R. Reid

Gemette R. Reid

 Passed away June 9, 2020, aged 76, from complications of COVID-19.  Born in Wollongong, NSW, May 19, 1944, she studied history at the Australian National University, and education at Melbourne University.  After teaching in Australia from 1967-1982 she emigrated to the U.S., furthering her education at Harvard University and receiving the PhD. from Michigan State University.  She served as professor at the University of North Dakota before returning to Boston in 1996.  Gem was an enthusiastic and intellectual participant in her chosen community of Cambridge.  Her struggles with mental illness interrupted her life at numerous junctures though all who knew her will remember her determined work ethic and her enthusiastic participation in the art and cultural offerings of Boston.  In recent years she focused on writing, mostly poetry and memoir, and watercolor painting, often brightly colored depictions of flowers.  Gem was predeceased by her father and mother, Robert and Daphne M. Reid, and her brother Bruce M. Reid.  She leaves a sister-in-law, Pat Reid, of Jerrabomberra, NSW.

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