Jean H. Mugford

Born in Randolph, VT, Jean graduated from Agawam, MA high school, and then Columbia University in 1957 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Jean was employed in various capacities as a Registered Nurse earth angel, sharing her gifts as a visiting nurse for the town of Newton, MA; a private duty nurse for a number of patients; an RN at several nursing homes in both New York and Massachusetts; and an elementary school nurse for the town of Hopkinton, MA. She concluded her RN career specializing in Alzheimer’s care within the special unit at St. Patrick’s Manor, Framingham, MA.

Jean contributed in many capacities as a member of the Memorial Congregational Church of Sudbury, and later, at the Presbyterian Church in Sudbury. She served as a deacon, she taught Sunday school, she assisted with monthly services at Wingate Retirement Home, she enjoyed women’s bible study, she visited and shared prayer with the lonely and the ill, and she faithfully prepared the communion table each month for as long as she was able.

She was an active volunteer in her community. She assisted with boys and girl scout programs as her children grew. She served with the Sudbury American Legion Post #191 Auxiliary in later years, where she held offices as treasurer, chaplain, and historian. She organized church services and ice cream socials for seniors at the VA and at various nursing homes alongside other legion post members. She sought to attend funeral services for all military service veterans in the area, along with her husband and other legion members, so that no deceased’s family would be alone in their bereavement, and so that the families would know that their loved one’s service to country was not forgotten. She attended several services, finding only one elderly surviving family member in attendance, who was most grateful for the legion’s presence. Jean helped raise funds through the legion’s poppy sales in support of Sudbury’s Fourth of July, Veterans’ and Memorial Day celebrations. She judged children’s patriotic writings, children’s patriotically decorated bicycles, and was often seen smiling and waving from a red, white and blue colored parade float.

In April of 2001, Jean and her husband traveled with her husband’s General MacArthur Honor Guard Reunion group to Japan, visiting points of interest that included the general’s residence and the embassy grounds, where Bob had served the general and his family at the conclusion of WW2.

With a small dog sleeping in her lap, or alongside her, Jean smilingly knitted thousands of colorful hats for disadvantaged children and elderly of the Maine Sea Coast Mission of Bar Harbor Maine. Jean coincidentally honeymooned in the town years earlier as a beautiful young bride. Her new husband took her deep-sea fishing on their honeymoon, and almost lost her there forever to a rogue wave as she posed on a rocky shoreline and he fumbled with a camera.

A former teenaged swim instructor and lifeguard, Jean enjoyed days off in retirement on the waterfront in NH with family, kayaking and seeking any opportunity to teach a grandchild how to swim. With little prodding, one might hear Jean tell her stories from a beach chair about wind shear and the sailboat that she and her husband flipped; or stories of her visiting her church friends, carpooling her children, or taking one lucky child at a time to Friendly’s on a Sunday evening for ice cream on her own motorcycle. The imitation black leathered family gang wasn’t complete without Bob and another child on a second motorcycle.

Jean’s wonderfully warm and disarming church-lady ways endeared her to others quickly. She impressed her children, one ice cream trip, by fearlessly striking up a pleasant conversation with a scary California motorcycle gang member, talking with him about their shared interest in motorcycling; she with her quiet suburban Honda and the unshaven man with his loud Harley Davidson chopper.

Jean lived a life of example, centered and balanced by her Christian beliefs. It was magical to watch. She was a gentle push, who made positive things happen around her. She would stand in church each week and quietly ask others to pray for our military service members. She would gently prod her adult children by asking, “Have you gone to church this week?” She was the favorite nurse on the nursing home floor, who would sneak ice cream out of the facility’s commercial freezer for her residents, because ice cream is good medicine.

Jean’s greatest personal joy undoubtedly, above all service to others, was raising her own loving family. We can’t thank her enough for her life lessons and her sacrifices. We know that she has gone Home to enjoy Christmas. Her dearly departed husband, and others who she so loved, wait to meet her smiling face at the gate. How much it all must resemble a familiar small white church on a Vermont hill in August, above a green family farm with a standout hay loft for children. The church bell is ringing, welcoming the newcomer. Cousin Larry is seated at the pump organ. She has earned the golden ticket, and a dish of the best coffee ice cream that has ever been snitched.

Jean was predeceased by her parents, Ernest Ransom Hall and Jane (Jennie) Rose Webster Hall, the love of her life and husband of 54 years, Robert G. Mugford, her sister Marion (Hall) Duke, her twin brother Robert W. Hall, and her daughter-in-law Tammi (Bolton) Mugford. She is survived by her four children - Julie A. Mugford of Sudbury, MA; Phillip R. Mugford and his wife Lucja (Lucy) Szkoda of Simsbury, CT; Scott H. Mugford of West Boylston, MA; Laurie J. (Mugford) Nalesnik and her husband Walter Nalesnik Jr. MD, of Revere, MA; sister-in-law Ann (Tate) Hall; granddaughters Stephanie (Lettery) Osborn (husband Jake Osborn); Danielle S. Nalesnik; grandson Steven B. Lettery; great-granddaughter Olivia Grace Osborn; many loved nieces, nephews, and extended family friends.

Visitation in the funeral home, Duckett - J.S. Waterman & Sons Home of Memorial Tribute, 656 Boston Post Road, Sudbury, MA, on Thursday, December 19, 2024 from 4-7PM. Burial will be on Friday, December 20, 2024 at Wadsworth Cemetery, 74 Concord Road at 1PM. A funeral service will follow at Presbyterian Church of Sudbury, 330 Concord Road at 2PM.

The family would like to thank the many professionals at Carlyle House who have cared for, entertained, and filled the last chapter of Jean’s life with love. We consider you all family. Memorial donations may be made in Jean’s memory to Braintree Historical Society, Inc., 515 Menard Road, Braintree, VT 05060