Dr. Jane Walsh Mattingly

Jane Mattingly was born to parents who were first generation of Irish descent. Her father, Joseph Aloysius Walsh, resided in West New York, NJ; his family came from Kilfinane, Co. Cork. He flourished in administrative positions with companies that included Phinotast (one of many suppliers of mosquito pesticides to Panama Canal construction), Burroughs Machine Products, and Rochester Germicide. Her mother, Emma Collins, lived in Elizabeth, NJ; her family came from Oldcastle, Co. Meath. Emma was the eldest of four children and experienced challenges such as living in a city without indoor toilets and with chicken coops in the backyard. Emma and Joseph raised four children in Leonia, NJ, (Bergen Co.) including Mary, Joseph, Edward, and Jane. Jane had the advantage of a solid education first at St John’s Elementary in Leonia and later at St. Cecelia’s in Englewood, NJ where her Latin teacher was Vince Lombardi, better known as the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers. She finished her secondary studies at Leonia High School and initially entered Clark University as a chemistry major before transferring to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. At Georgetown she attended the School of Foreign Service, where she majored in International Relations (History, Government and Economics) and graduated in 1962. It was here that she met Paul Mattingly, her eventual husband of 54 years, and many friendships that would last her lifetime. Following her college graduation, Jane began what would be a lifelong commitment to a career in education. She began teaching at St Michael’s Elementary School in Palisades Park, NJ while studying for a Master’s degree at Teachers College, Columbia University’s program in Curriculum and Instruction. She completed the program the day before she married Paul (August 15, 1964) in Leonia, NJ. She moved to Madison, Wisconsin where Paul was pursuing his doctoral studies in history at the University of Wisconsin. She taught elementary school and had their first child, Stephen David in 1966; they remained in Madison until Paul earned his PhD in 1968. Paul accepted a faculty position at New York University, which brought them back to Leonia, NJ where they serendipitously purchased the home in which Jane grew up. Their second child, Carolyn Jane, was born in 1969. Jane began a second course of study at Teachers College. She earned a Masters in Psychology in 1976, and ultimately pursued a concentration in Special Education in which she earned her doctoral degree in 1978 (Committee: Jo Shepard, Jean Fleischner and Lois Bloom). Her research on early language skills followed lines of argument from Jean Piaget and Roman Jacobsen among other influential scholarly exiles. Jane worked in several venues in Teaneck and Leonia, NJ before settling into the Directorship of Special Education for Elizabeth, NJ (ESL, suicide prevention, slow learners, educational testing, etc.). There she consistently resisted the political pressures of the time and place and remained focused on the educational needs of the large and challenged school district. In 1989 she became Director of Special Services in the Morris School District in Morristown, NJ. She retired in 2002 after a long career of fighting for children with special needs and with a lineage of dedicated colleagues and friends. Shortly after “retirement” she took on a number of consultant positions in NJ including Principal of Lake Drive School for the Deaf, Morris County, Supervisor for Special Services, and Assistant Superintendent of the Monmouth County School. Once asked what her major career accomplishment was, she answered, “not one big accomplishment, but hundreds of smaller ones.” In her later years Jane enjoyed traveling and visiting many countries including France, Spain, Italy England, Ireland, Russia, Switzerland, among others with her husband, family members, and friends – most regularly her beloved sister-in-law Lynn and friends, Noah and Kate. Her trip to Ireland was especially memorable, where she visited the towns of her forebears: Kilfinane in Cork, and Oldcastle in Co Meath. She also especially enjoyed her time at her cottage on a lake in northeastern Pennsylvania, where she and her husband spent long weekends and summers hiking, swimming, boating, snow-shoeing, cooking, reading, relaxing, and enjoying family and friends who visited. On September 4, 2014 Jane and her husband moved to Raleigh, NC to be near their daughter, Carolyn and her partner, Tony Planchart, and their children. On May 13, 2016, a Friday, Jane was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and worked hard to check this incurable disease. With superlative help from Duke Womens Cancer Care Center, its extraordinary nurses, Dr. Stacy Telloni, and Dr. Sascha Tuchman, Jane negotiated numerous downsides and upticks for two and a half years. Eventually the spiking electrolytes – particularly calcium, which segued into hypercalcemia – overrode her resistance. She was a steady, smart, beautiful, and generous force in her family and throughout her life. She will be missed in hundreds of small and large ways. Jane is survived by her husband Paul; her son, Stephen Mattingly of Massachusetts who is a forensic chemist for NewFields, his wife Lisa Emsbo-Mattingly and their three children Liam, Owen, and Ella; and her daughter, Carolyn Mattingly, a molecular toxicologist and Interim Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University, her partner Antonio Planchart and their children, Rebecca, Sarah, Emma, and Simon. Also surviving are her sister Sr. Marie Michelle Walsh, SSND of the English Department, Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore, and her brother Joseph A. Walsh of Aptos, California. Jane’s older brother, Edward Walsh of Massachusetts, predeceased her. A requiem mass will be celebrated (11:00 a.m. Saturday, December 29,2018), at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church St. Mary of the Angels Chapel on Leesville Road, Raleigh with Fr. Stephen Patti and Rev. John Donahue SJ concelebrating. Her ashes will be interred in St. Francis’ cloistered columbarium.

Dr. Jane Walsh Mattingly

July 9, 1941 - December 20, 2018