Jean Wendy Schuster

Their father’s work as a structural engineer would bring the family to different parts of the world as well as to Taliesin East, the home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, where the family spent a great deal of time. Wright’s style and aesthetic was a great influence on Jean, which she carried throughout her life.

When Jean was a teenager, the family moved to Norman, Oklahoma where her father taught at the University Of Oklahoma School Of Engineering. After high school she followed her parents to Europe and spent a year exploring and living in France.

Jean’s older brother David adored the San Francisco bay area and was living there when he convinced her to move to San Francisco. She enrolled at UC Berkley to study writing and literature. It was there that she met her husband, Fred Schuster.

They were married in 1960 and lived in the bay area where they made many friends and absorbed the urban culture.

Fred’s work as a Microbiologist brought Jean and Fred first to Illinois where they lived outside of Chicago and ultimately to New York City where Fred obtained a permanent teaching position at Brooklyn College. Jean also worked at Brooklyn College in the Financial Aid and Admissions office where she enjoyed her work and her calm, compassionate personality was greatly respected and admired by the students and her coworkers alike.

The couple lived in New York City for over 30 years, raised their family and made many lifelong friends. They lived the majority of their time in Belle Harbor, Queens, just a short walk to the beach and then, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn where they lived on the Verrazano Narrows waterway with a beautiful view of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the New York City skyline just a short walk away. After Jean and Fred retired from their work at Brooklyn College, they returned to the San Francisco Bay area where they lived in the Oakland hills with a spectacular view overlooking the San Francisco Bay area, they reconnected with old friends, visited museums and enjoyed many, many restaurants, they enjoyed traveling and made trips to Thailand, Morocco and Italy among other places.

Fred passed away in 2009 and Jean continued for a time living in Oakland until she moved to Oregon to be nearby her family in the Portland area. She moved to Courtyard Fountains, in Gresham where she made new friends and never had anything but kind and positive words about the staff and the other residents.

Jean enjoyed her time visiting family, her grandkids and their large menagerie of pets. She loved art, music and reading and later in life could still recite poems she had memorized as a young girl. She was such a positive influence on her friend’s and family, she was truly so kind, compassionate and thoughtful and this was so apparent whether you knew her for a lifetime or even for just a brief time. She was a wonderful listener and made the world a better place in her time on this planet. We miss her already.

Jean is survived by her sister Annie, her children, Alan, Debbie and Michael and her grand children Sabrina, Adam, Steven and Joe.