Francoise June Christiaen
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Francoise June Bianette Christiaen died peacefully in her sleep on November 30, 2019 at the age of 87. June was born to Robert Christiaen and Bianette Christiaen (Nee Cauchois) on August 27th, 1932 in Melbourne Australia. She emigrated to America in 1946 at age 14. She studied at Mount Holyoke College from which she graduated Summa cum laude, the Universite de Paris, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and received a PhD from Boston College. Her early career took her to the United Nations and then into teaching, which became her passion. She taught at the Landmark School where she developed some of the first teaching curricula for dyslexia. Over her long career she held a faculty position at Tufts University and within the Melrose public school system, where she taught in the High School and assisted the administration by providing expertise on special needs children. She retired in 1999 having improved the public school system and having had a positive effect on many, many young minds.
June was married in 1959 and raised three children, Jacquelyn June (Lyn) Hartel, Karen Anne Hartel and Reed (Rob) Christiaen Hartel. Summers were spent in Sandwich NH, a region she truly loved and the one she would return to during her extended, happy retirement. Her nurturing, kind, thoughtful nature extended far beyond her immediate family and included many friends. She was inevitably cheerful and outgoing and a sympathetic, fascinating and wonderful conversationalist. She was a voracious reader, loved gardening, the white mountains, travel and reading and writing poetry. When not tending her garden, she was an active participant in the Sandwich community, serving on the Boards of the Benz Center and Tamworth Learning Circles, as a member of the Senior Housing Committee and as President of the Athena Investment Group.
Music held a special place in her life. June was skilled in early music and the instruments of the Renaissance including the viola de gamba, recorder, bells, harp and voice. She has performed in many concerts around the Lakes Region, on Church Island, in Sandwich, Moultonboro, Chocorua and the Boston region. She has been a member of Calliope Consort, Treble Makers, Cleveland Hill Consort and was an active member of Revels - 12th Night Jubilee, staring often as St. George in "St George and the Dragon".
In addition to the children listed above, June is survived by the grandchildren she loved to spend time with and to whom she was devoted, Hannah Wells Koenig and Ellis Pearl Koenig, her brother Alain Robert Lucien Christiaen and his wife Patricia Christiaen, of Sydney, Australia and her fellow musician Nancy Bird Nichols. She is missed by many more.
A memorial service will be held on July 11, 2020 at 11am. to celebrate her life and lay her to rest in the Quaker cemetery in North Sandwich. www.mayhewfuneralhomes.com