Jack Shepherd

Shepherd—Jack Shepherd, 85, on December 26, 2022, from squamous cell cancer, with his family at his side at home in Norwich, Vt. Jack was born on December 14, 1937, to Grace (Anderson) and John Shepherd in Summit, N.J. Jack became acquainted with the Quaker faith as an undergraduate at Pennsylvania’s Haverford College, where he admired the moral atmosphere. He carried this influence in the years that followed. Not inconsequentially, his first date with Kathleen, his wife of 63 years, was to attend a meeting for worship.

After leaving Haverford, Jack received a graduate degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism. Assignments from Look magazine led him to cover famine in Ethiopia, war in Nigeria, and the Civil Rights Movement in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif., and Lowndes County, Ala. These experiences engendered in Jack a deep and lifelong concern for the issues of food insecurity, chronic hunger, and poverty. A central organizing principle for him became how we are called to live on this earth—how we manage our personal resources and the right sharing of resources on a worldwide scale.

When Jack and his family moved from New York City to Norwich, Vt., in 1977, his outreach to local Haverford alumni brought them to Hanover (N.H.) Meeting, where they became members in 1980. Jack’s involvement with Friends influenced his interest in mediation and peacemaking at many levels ranging from interpersonal to international. His interest in Africa led Jack to undertake advanced study at Boston University in Massachusetts and to teaching Dartmouth undergraduates in Hanover as the director of the War and Peace Studies Program as well as in the Environmental Studies Program. Jack relished teaching and mentoring students.

Beginning in 1993, Jack became the director of the Global Security Fellows Initiative at the University of Cambridge, England. There he brought together mid-career professionals from East-Central Europe and Southern Africa to address common environmental, political, and economic issues. His good spirit, sense of humor, and eagerness to address conflict served him well. Returning to Dartmouth’s Environmental Studies Program in 2000, Jack directed its Africa Foreign Studies Program for eight years. He and Kathleen took great joy in guiding groups of Dartmouth undergraduates as they traveled and worked together on Southern African environmental issues.

Jack regularly attended meetings for worship at Hanover Meeting, and was often at meetings for worship for business. He served as clerk of the meeting, was on the Board of Trustees, and was clerk and a member of the Finance Committee. Jack was a steady, quiet presence. He enjoyed sharing his wide knowledge, experience, and connections with the meeting’s young adults. One of his great gifts to the meeting was to mentor a member in a significant writing endeavor, which enriched them both.

Jack’s life gave his energy to a number of other important and demanding pursuits, including developing programs at Dartmouth and beyond, teaching and mentoring students, work and travel in Africa, and research and writing projects.

Jack’s first thoughts were always for his family—wife, daughter, and son, and their life partners, and three beloved granddaughters who came together each summer for a family camp created by their grandparents.

Jack’s spiritual life was foundational to him. During worship he was content to be in his private space. Messages based in Scripture had particular meaning to him, as biblical texts did in his inward spiritual life.

Jack was predeceased by a sister, Sandra Lesinski, and her husband, Ray.

He is survived by his wife, Kathleen Kessler Shepherd; two children, Kristen Shepherd Hampton (Robert) and Caleb John Shepherd (partner Eleanor Lowenthal); three grandchildren; two sisters-in-law, Mary Ann Smith and Niki Mason; and many nieces and nephews.