Marjorie Jean Romano would probably not have wanted to be the subject of the Gazette’s front page, especially under these circumstances. “Jean”, as we all knew her, was both humble and full of so much life. But as administrator extraordinaire, she was also a stickler for policy, and the Gazette’s policy is to pay tribute to former Chairmen of the Gazette on our front page. Jean served as our chairman from 2007 to 2012, steering us through some tumultuous political times, always with wisdom, equanimity, and a firm grasp on truth, transparency, and the pulse of the town. Even after she retired as chairman and from the editorial board, we sought her advice on controversial matters and proceeded with confidence because of Jean’s stamp of approval.
Jean was born in Bergen County, New Jersey on January 30, 1933 during the Great Depression, which taught her “the importance of kindness and offering a helping hand”. She earned an English degree and Phi Beta Kappa honors from New Jersey College for Women, now part of Rutgers University, and met her husband, the late Antonio “Tony” Romano, while waitressing. The couple moved to Cincinnati where Tony was a biology professor and Jean devoted herself to raising their sons, Steve, Jim, and Charley, while earning a degree in education, and later teaching at an inner-city elementary school. In 1971, Tony accepted a faculty position at UConn and they moved to Mansfield, where Jean earned her master’s degree in education at UConn and started teaching in the Windham Public Schools, where she began her “groundbreaking career in education”, and when Tony Laboy joined their family to become one of Jean and Tony’s boys.
In a career that epitomized compassion, generosity and integrity, Jean began as a classroom teacher, and then became the Director of Bilingual Education. In her roles as teacher and administrator, she was a strong advocate for minority students and their families, made life-long friendships with members of the Latino community in Willimantic, and always brought out the best in students and teachers. “Their enduring success,” her obituary stated, “is Jean’s greatest tribute.” With the bilingual program improving and evolving every year under her guidance, Jean would become a pioneering founder of the Windham School District’s acclaimed Companeros dual-language program. This is how we met. Jean recruited me to teach in Connecticut in the fledgling Companeros program when we were both in attendance at a national bilingual conference in Texas in 1994. People from Hampton sometimes ask – how did you find our “Quiet Corner” all the way from the southwest? And we’d laugh as I’d point to Jean and say – “it’s all her fault!” If not for that move, I would not have met my wife. We taught together in the bilingual department and Jean was our boss, but afterwards, she became a “second mother” to us and holidays will never be the same at our home without her.
In 1994, the Romanos moved to Hampton where they would soon retire, host New Year’s and St. Patrick’s Day parties in their home, hike the nature trails, cross-country ski, and travel extensively in the United States and Europe. They also volunteered in town, Tony as a Selectman, and Jean in the Fletcher Memorial Library and with The Hampton Gazette, where she served on the editorial board for many years, was responsible for the indexing, and contributed countless articles. She would volunteer to write something she thought would be of interest to the town, and never turned from an assignment she was asked to pen, no matter how difficult. Jean also wrote and consulted on federal bilingual education grants and authored several books. She gave me “Transitions in Connecticut” because I’m named in it, and when India started her degree in early childhood, she gave her the delightful “Yasmin, the Yoga Cat”. Jean was also an artist, as well as an author.
Along with many friendships in Hampton, Tony and Jean cultivated beautiful gardens and wildflower meadows, both of which were featured in the Gazette, Tony’s wildflowers, no easy feat, which have spread, as their friendships, across to other yards, and Jean’s perennial gardens, which she was busily tending the day before she passed away. Her happy place was her garden, her home, with her friends and with her family. Our deepest condolences to all the many, many people who will miss her.
Juan Arriola
A celebration of Jean’s remarkable life will be held later this year. Donations to the UConn Foundation in the name of the Antonio H. Romano and Marjorie J. Romano Graduate Education Fund are greatly appreciated.