Jean L. Golden

Jean L Golden, 81, of Pittsford, New York, passed away peacefully on Aug.13 with family by her side after obstinately thumbing her nose at cancer for nearly 11 years.

Born Jean Virginia Lenhart on Feb. 11, 1941 in Middletown, Connecticut to the Rev. Dr. James W. Lenhart and Mrs. Martha E. Lenhart, she grew up primarily in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. She forged lifelong friendships with her Waynflete High School classmates in Portland.

Jean went on to study history and political science at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland graduating with a BA in 1962. While in college, her father was called to be the Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines, Iowa and with her parents and Jean’s younger brother Tom, she moved to Iowa. There, on break from college, Jean met John Golden who was studying math at Caltech. The two were married at Plymouth Church by Jean’s father in December of 1962. They would move to Kansas while John finished his master’s degree, and then to New Jersey where their two sons, James Harris and Charles Robert were born.

Ultimately, they settled in the beautiful Erie Canal town of Pittsford, New York. As her sons grew, Jean became active in local politics and even made a run for local office herself in the late Seventies. She was a strong advocate for voting and worked the polls in Pittsford until she was no longer physically able to do so. She also enjoyed working at Sibley’s department store and its parent organization, the May Company, eventually becoming an assistant buyer. She would later come out of retirement to work a few years for J. Jill. 

Jean turned her business and political acumen to supporting the United Church of Christ (UCC). Jean was a longtime lay leader in the United Church of Christ’s national ministries and its New York Conference. Her voluntary service to the UCC included many leadership roles and terms on the New York Conference board, the national Executive Council, and the Local Church Ministries board. She also served her local church, Mountain Rise United Church of Christ of Fairport, New York, in many capacities. The UCC and her Mountain Rise community were dear to her throughout her entire life.

Jean had a deep and life-long love for the coast of Maine and its deep blue waters. Boothbay Harbor became a haven for Jean’s family as they vacationed there annually beginning in 1949. Her summers were filled with her working as a teenager at Brown’s Wharf and at the Oak Grove Hotel and as an adult were filled with making new deep, lifelong friendships and renewing old ones. The family eventually acquired a cottage on Juniper Point that would be the source of decades of family memories. For more than a decade, Jean would serve as a beloved member of the crew of the Sherman Zwicker, a Grand Banks schooner that sailed annually from Boothbay Harbor to its home port of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and made guest appearances in Tall Ships events in Boston and other cities.

Jean took on the role of family historian, spending countless hours researching the Lenhart and Golden family trees. She discovered and made contact with numerous relatives and made several genealogy journeys visiting people, homesteads, and gravesites. She loved visiting with her grandchildren, frequently regaling them with tales from the family history book. 

As her health declined, Jean moved to assisted living where she maintained as much independence as she could manage even driving herself to hospital appointments and on shopping trips, much to the dismay of her social workers. 

Jean was predeceased by her father, the Rev. Dr. James W. Lenhart, her mother, Martha E. Lenhart, and her late husband John R. Golden.

She is survived by her brother, James Thomas Lenhart, her sons James Harris Golden and Charles Robert Golden, and her grandchildren Johanna Elizabeth Golden, Jake Robert Golden, and Sydney Elaine Golden. 

A celebration of Jean’s life will be held at Mountain Rise United Church of Christ in Fairport, New York, on Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. and an interment ceremony in Portland, Maine will take place next summer.