Jean Newton Box

Jean Newton Box, age 98, passed away peacefully on Friday April 26, 2024 at Commonwealth Assisted Living in Oak Ridge TN. 

Mrs. Box and her family have appreciated her longevity and the love and friendship she has experienced from so many persons throughout her life. She has written this obituary herself. 

Jean Newton Box was born in Maywood IL, June 13, 1925, to Leon and Viola Newton. He was a locomotive engineer and she was an elementary school teacher. Jean grew up in this western suburb of Chicago in a musical family. At nine she moved from piano to flute, which she played into her nineties.

She graduated from Cornell College in Iowa in 1947 with a major in Sociology and a plan to become a social worker. Her first position after college was in an American Friends Service Committee student program for attendants at the New Jersey Psychiatric Hospital in Trenton. There she met another student who was learning about counseling in mental illness. That was Howard Box, who was attending Yale University preparing for the ministry. They kept in touch through their further education and first jobs and married in 1952. She found the position of minister’s wife quite to her liking and saw the opportunity to use her social work skills in their congregations.

Rev. and Mrs. Box served congregations at the Unitarian Church in Newburgh, NY; the Unitarian Church in Ottawa, Canada; the Society for Ethical Culture in Brooklyn, NY, very similar to the Unitarian denomination; and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Ridge, TN. It was an interesting experience to live in Canada, another country. Daughter Ruth and son Gordon were both born there and have dual citizenship.

Through most of her life, Jean had various part-time jobs in social work or positions on boards. And in Brooklyn she and two other members used their musical skills to perform together for their own and other congregations in the NY City area. The last congregation that Howard served was The UU Church of Oak Ridge TN, starting in 1976. In this city Jean was in the Community Band, the Symphony Orchestra, played solos and accompanied the church choir. She gave private flute lessons to 150 students in the Music Arts School from 1980 to 2000.

Rev. Box retired in 1991. They continued to live active lives in Oak Ridge. In 2018 they moved into Commonwealth Senior Living where Howard died in 2021 after 68 years of marriage.

The Boxes are survived by daughter Ruth Westfall of Mahomet IL, son Gordon Box (Betsy Williams) of Durham NC, and daughter Carol Box (Alessandro Nicita) in Switzerland, where he works for the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva. Grandchildren are Robert Westfall, and Sofia and Matteo Nicita.

Memorial contributions in Jean’s honor may be made to the Oak Ridge UU Church or to the charity of one’s choice.

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