The Reverend Jeanne Mills, for whom parish ministry was a late calling after a rich and multi-faceted life as an educator, environmental activist, and archivist, died on 2 February 2016 at the age of 73.

Frances Jeanne Melis was born 18 October 1942 to Francis Kenneth Melis and Frances Inez Esson Melis. She earned a B.A. from Bucknell University in 1963 and an M.Ed. from Columbia University in 1965. She taught English in South America (1965-

1967) as a Peace Corps volunteer, earned an MBA from Simmons College in 1983, and an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School in 1997. Jeanne was ordained in 1997 by the Second Congregational Society (UU) in Nantucket (Mass) and spent the next thirteen years serving interim ministries in Nashville (Tenn), Midland (Mich), Tulsa (Okla), Chicago, Houston, Huntington and Schenectady (New York), Eugene (Oregon), and Savannah (Georgia), retiring from the parish in 2010.

Her sister Darleen remembers Jeanne as “a woman of great energy and interests who could accomplish much.” Family and friends remember her as an inspiring, caring and free-spirited person. Fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Stephen Sheppard remembers, “Jeanne was the best of us. Giving, caring, unselfish. Her good, positive, energy became part of us all from the moment she came into our lives so many years ago. We miss her already.”
Jeanne is survived by two brothers, two sisters, two daughters, a grandson, and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service was held at the United Church of Dorset, Vermont, 5 March 2016. Memorial donations are encouraged to the Natural Resources Defense Council or the Knox County Humane Society in Rockland, Maine.