Ethel Sadowsky

Ethel S. Sadowsky passed away on May 9, after complications related to a fall. Devoted wife to Dr. Norman L. Sadowsky (d. 2019) for over 66 years, loving mom to Marc, Amy, Eve, and Jane, Grandmere to Aaron, Gabriel and William, mother-in-law to Devra Cohen and John Heneghan.

Born and raised in Worcester, MA, Ethel graduated from Radcliffe College in 1955, received her Master’s in Education from Harvard University in 1957 and her PhD in Education Administration from Harvard University in 1978. Ethel raised her four children in Brookline, MA. while keeping a busy schedule of community activism and taught her kids to be politically involved. During the Dukakis Administration, Governor Dukakis appointed her to the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women; she was a feminist, a member of the League of Women Voters and a Brookline Town Meeting Member. Ethel began her teaching career in the late 1960’s as a part-time teacher of English at Brookline High School, becoming the Chairman of the English Department at BHS and ultimately Housemaster of Roberts House at Brookline High. From Brookline High, Ethel took the position as the Principal of the Heath School in Brookline, a job she loved until she retired in 1998. Ethel had a lifelong love of learning and joined Harvard Institute of Learning in Retirement (HILR) where she and Norman loved taking classes, and Ethel also taught classes at HILR in Jewish- Catholic Relations. She maintained intellectual pursuits particularly her love of writing, especially memoirs and short stories, as well as reading, completing crossword puzzles and correcting everyone’s grammar. Services will be held Thursday, May 12, at Stanetsky Memorial Chapel, 1668 Beacon St., BROOKLINE at 2pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Ethel’s name to The Brookline Education Foundation, www.brooklinefoundation.org or Planned Parenthood.