Jean L. (Rudman) Gale

Jean Laurel Gale of Kittery Maine, formerly of Cape Neddick Maine, Weston, Massachusetts, and Nashua, New Hampshire, passed away on July 5th at the age of 85 after a brief illness.  

Mrs. Gale was born to Edward Rudman and Theresa (née Levenson) Rudman, on September 10, 1937.  After graduating from the Walnut Hill School, where she was voted most likely to become a famous singer, Mrs. Gale studied fine arts at Syracuse University and Boston University where she concentrated on piano and voice. 

A few months before graduation in 1959, Jean met her future husband, the late William S. Gale, who was then an executive at the Gillette Company. It was love at first sight and, after a brief whirlwind romance, they were married in the backyard of Jean’s childhood home in Nashua, NH.  Their marriage lasted over 50 years until William’s passing in 2011.

Mrs. Gale was a serial entrepreneur and a truly modern women who, while simultaneously raising her two sons and keeping home, started a company in the 1970s called The Deer Path Group that ran focus groups for companies developing new consumer products. Simultaneously, she was both an interior decorator and an inventor and held multiple patents for picture frames and related fixtures. But, Jean never lost her love of music and could often be found at her piano, singing, and entertaining her family and friends for hours at a time.

During the early 1960s, on one of her many antiquing forays, Jean discovered a trove of paintings languishing in a barn in Francistown, New Hampshire by the nearly forgotten Canadian/American impressionist, George Loftus Noyes.   

This discovery sparked a life-long interest in Noyes which she and her husband pursued with a passion. Together, they amassed the largest known private collection of his works, and their efforts to document and preserve his legacy is largely credited with re-awakening an interest in the artist who studied with Frederick Church and, taught N.C. Wyeth, among others.

She and her husband successfully lobbied the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to include Noyes in their permanent collection of American Impressionists and generously donated Noyes’ works to The Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy Andover, The Hood Museum at Dartmouth College, and many other art institutions. Throughout her life she also generously loaned her collection to museums for exhibition. Noyes was a vocation with her, and she delighted in sharing Noyes’ story with anyone interested.  

You can’t talk about Jean without delighting in that she was also a talented chef. Her home was the gravitational center of countless family meals and holiday gatherings filled with laughter and love. But of all the recipes in Jean’s repertoire, she was most famous for her brownies.

“Queen Jean’s” fudge brownies were simply famous. Her children, grandchildren and all that knew Jean coveted her unique take on this treat. They were so popular, in fact, that at one point she considered selling them nationwide. This would have particularly pleased her children’s former college roommates who, to this day, frequently call to ostensibly say hello but, we all know, just want to know if there are any extras that might be “sent along.” And, in fact, they were often sent!

Above all however, Jean was utterly devoted to her family and friends. She adored her husband, her two children, and her four beloved grandchildren. Fiercely compassionate, nurturing, and generous, Mrs. Gale cared for the people in her life in the most selfless way imaginable. Her happiness manifested in the joy she brought others, her hilarious self-deprecating sense of humor and her ability to make everyone around her smile always. She was a force of life in her family’s lives and dearly missed by all who knew her.

Mrs. Gale was predeceased by her parents, Edward and Theresa Rudman of Nashua, NH, her brother, the late U.S. Senator Warren B. Rudman (R-NH), her sister, Carol Rudman of Washington, DC, and her husband William.  She is survived by her sons Jay of South Berwick, Maine, and Alan of Gaithersburg, MD.  She is also survived by her four grandchildren, Samantha, Julian, Alexandra, and Jonathan, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.  

A celebration of Jeans’s life will be held at her home on September 20th, 2023 at 1:00-6:00pm. Family and friends are all welcome. In keeping with safe social gatherings, all attendees are asked to be fully COVID vaccinated. For those unvaccinated or unable to attend for other reasons, a Zoom link will be available for those wishing to participate. Please email Jay Gale for additional details. jdgale@hotmail.com.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Jean L. (Rudman) Gale, please visit our floral store.