Jean Paula Buyze

She was born on Staten Island, New York, on April 17, 1935, to parents Miriam and Paul Schuller. A few years later her parents divorced and Jean was raised by her mother and stepfather, Vincent Gilkeson.

Her stepfather was in the US Army, and so, throughout her childhood, Jean and her two brothers and three sisters had the opportunity to travel around the world. During that time, she went to 15 different schools, including five high schools, finally graduating in 1953 from Munich American High School in Germany.

She met her husband, Donald Buyze, in Stuttgart, Germany. They were married in 1955 in Marysville, California. In the early years of her marriage, she worked to put her new husband through Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, foregoing her own education for many years.

Soon after her husband’s graduation from college, the couple moved to McBain, Michigan, where Donald taught high school and Jean raised her four children, Stephen, Susan, David, and Constance. While they were growing up, she attended night school through extension courses from Central Michigan University.

Eventually the family moved to Benton Harbor, Michigan, where Jean continued her college education at Lake Michigan College and Western Michigan University from where she finally graduated summa cum laude in 1981.

During her lifetime, Jean had many jobs. While in Germany, she worked for Radio-Free Europe. Upon her return to the States, she worked for General Motors Acceptance Corp. in Grand Rapids. After the move to McBain she wrote for The Waterfront, Missaukee County, Michigan’s weekly newspaper. Following graduation from college, she sold insurance for Farmers Insurance.

After Donald and Jean divorced in 1985, Jean followed a life-long dream of living in Alaska. She first moved to Kotzebue, north of the Arctic Circle, to teach high school students. After a few years in Kotzebue, she moved down to Anchorage where she continued to teach.

Throughout her life, Jean was active in volunteer organizations such as NAACP, Women’s Political Caucus, National Organization for Women (NOW), and various church groups. She was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Benton Harbor. Amongst the numerous causes she worked for were the Equal Rights Amendment and a non-nuclear proliferation organization. After retirement from teaching she volunteered through the IRS as a tax assistant for Seniors. She also found herself monitoring water quality at various locations in Alaska.

She was a published writer, contributing articles to such magazines as Michigan Natural Resources and Christian Educators Journal. She also wrote poetry, and her non-fiction book, The Tenth Muse, on the subject of women poets prior to Emily Dickinson, was published in 1980.

She had a love of nature, music, and travel. She was an accomplished seamstress, sewing her own clothes and that of her children.

She is survived by two sisters – Johanna King and Susan Warner, her half-sisters Lois Ward and Irene Malloy, her half-brother John Schuller, her four children, six grandchildren — Kimberly, David, Gwendolyn, Joseph, Jeffrey, and Nicole — one great grandchild — Elijah. She is preceded in death by her two brothers — Ed Gilkeson and Terry Gilkeson, her half-brother Steve Schuller, sister Patricia Okonsky, ex-husband, and great grandchild, Jahan.