Virginia Wade Sampson

Virginia Wade Sampson died 1/2/15 in Fort Collins CO. She was 95yo. Born on 11/17/19, Jinny grew up in Worcester MA, the oldest of six children. Her father, Harold Hamilton Wade, was headmaster and English teacher at Worcester Academy preparatory school from 1933-1942. Her mother, Meta Bennett Wade, graduated from Wellesley College before shepherding Jinny and her siblings through their launch years. The family spent summers on Bustins Island, off the coast of Freeport ME, where Jinny learned to sail and revel in the country of the pointed fir. She graduated from the Bancroft School in Worcester in 1938, then attended Wellesley College and the Salter Secretarial School before working for the Worcester Art Museum in the early 1940s. She married John Bard Sampson in 1942. His work as a theoretical physicist took them through Worcester, Buffalo NY and Richland WA during the 1940s before eight years in Burnt Hills NY in the 1950s. Her son, David, was born in 1950. Following a year in Brookhaven NY, the family moved to Del Mar CA from 1958-1963 before settling for 40yrs in Lexington MA. As a couple, they liked to hike, ski and canoe. Jinny was an avid bird watcher and silk-screener. She was a good cook and ‘domestic engineer’ (as she liked to say), and enjoyed gardening. She volunteered for many years in the public schools, active in exchange programs for foreign students. Jinny and John were long-time members of the First Parish Unitarian Church in Lexington, and were active in the Appalachian Mountain Club. Family and friends from multiple generations hold Jinny up as friendly, welcoming, engaging, generous, wry and original. She liked to read and discuss books on disparate and eclectic topics. Jinny and John moved to a retirement community in Winchester MA in 2002. John died later that year. Jinny moved to Fort Collins CO in 2006. Jinny is preceded in death by her parents and four siblings (Alan Bennett Wade, Anne Wade, Harold H Wade Jr and Paul deWolfe Wade); she is survived by her sister, Miriam Wade Butts (Falmouth, ME), her son, David Ashmore Sampson and his wife, Tracey Marie Seltzer (Fort Collins CO), and by their children, Hayley Marisa Sampson & Will Rand Sampson (both from New Orleans LA). A memorial service was held Tuesday, January 13, at Centre Ave Rehab in Fort Collins.