Jean Hector 11/09/2024

Jean Violet Hector died at home on November 9th of 2024. Jean was born in Dorset, England and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, before immigrating to the United States. She would go on to earn a Bachelor’s and Master’s at Ohio University and a PhD in Sociology from Wayne State University. Jean taught for 30 years as a tenured professor at UWRF and was a strong advocate for education, LGBTQAI+ rights, the rights of children, and equal pay. She created UWRF’s first course on children in war and served as an advisor for the Gay Straight Alliance. She was the 1985 recipient of the American Sociological Association and Wisconsin Sociological Association’s award for Outstanding Accomplishments in the Teaching of Sociology.

Her 1990 book Up Oor Close, detailing the lost world of Scottish tenement communities was a best seller in Scotland. She would also create a museum exhibit Up Oor Close, Roon Oor Back: An Evocation of a Tenement Room and Kitchen at the Springburn Museum in Glasgow, Scotland. After retirement Jean was awarded Professor Emeriti status at UWRF and became a fully certified SEP practitioner through the Institute of Mind Body Medicine. Jean is survived by her children Kathryn Hector and Sally Burkhardt (Baillargeon) and her three grandchildren William, Joshua, and Elizabeth (Baillargeon). A private celebration of life will be held at a later date.  Cremation services provided by Bakken-Young Funeral & Cremation Services.