Jane F. (Ferguson) Blanshard

Jane Ferguson Blanshard died September 1, 2019 at her home.  She was born March 15, 1930, in Delaware, OH, the only daughter of John DeLancey and Marion (Lockwood) Ferguson.  She was the widow of Rufus Anderson Blanshard, her husband of 54 years.  Jane attended Laurel School, Shaker Heights, OH, and Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, NY; she received a BA degree magna cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1952 and an MAT from Wesleyan University in 1968.  She worked for the University of Wisconsin Press and Yale University Press, and had a number of teaching jobs at ECSU, Mohegan Community College, Quinebaug Community College, the UConn Summer Program, Parish Hill High School and Bolton High School.  She also taught ESL at El Faro and QVCC in Willimantic, in Yaoundé.  Cameroon, and Banja Luka, Bosnia, and she was the first teacher of the Windham Young Parents Program.  Jane was the coordinator of the Windham Area Poetry Project and volunteered at Curbstone Press in Willimantic for many years thereafter.  She was the first president of the CT Society for Interracial Adoption.  She served on the Mansfield Board of Education, was chair of the Youth Services Bureau’s advisory board for nineteen years, and was a member of the Hispanic Service Providers network, the Mansfield League of Women Voters, the Friends of the Mansfield Library, and the Greater Willimantic Human Rights Council. Jane spent years, until the very end of her life, tutoring Asian students in English.  She leaves her daughters Clemency Blanshard Wings and her spouse Robin Berman of Albuquerque, NM, and Bailey Blanshard of Storrs and her partner Leah Futschik; her sons Luke Anderson Blanshard of Chicago and his wife Sara, and Todd Emanuel Blanshard of Henderson, NV, and Costa Rica; her granddaughter Carolina Wings and her spouse Alyson McManus of Seattle, WA, and her grandson Joseph Blanshard of Corona, CA.  Besides her husband, she was predeceased by a son, Fergus Anderson Blanshard.

The family suggests that memorial contributions in her name may be made to EduArt Inc for the Jane and Rufus Blanshard Writing Prize c/o Joyce Ashuntantang of Hillyer College, Hartford, or to Joshua’s Trust or WAIM.  For an online memorial guestbook please visit www.potterfuneralhome.com.

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