Jean G. Chen

Jean G. Chen passed away peacefully on September 30, 2025, in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, almost exactly one year after her husband Mark, to whom she was married for 57 years. She spent her final evening on this plane of existence watching Jeopardy with her family, with a newspaper on her lap. She was 85.

Jean was born in 1939 in Passaic, New Jersey, to Denis and Gertrude Gallagher. A graduate of the College of New Rochelle in New York (her first Ursuline school), Jean worked in Manhattan at an advertising agency before marrying the love of her life, Mark Chen, a scientist and poet from Taiwan, and moving to the Fairfax neighborhood of Wilmington to raise her family.

Eternally positive, Jean exemplified compassion, ethics, and intellectual adventure—values she instilled in her children, grandchildren, and the students of Ursuline Academy, where she taught for 23 years. She loved learning “way cool” things and was eager to share them as a lifelong student, mother, traveling zoo volunteer, and teacher. At Ursuline, Mrs. Chen created her own humanities course, introducing students to the countries of the world through folk stories, food and culture. She wrote plays about electricity and light, with a part for every first grader.

A consummate book lover and ardent champion of Banned Books Week, Jean was a faithful participant of the same book club for 30 years. She showered her grandchildren with books, index cards filled with facts, and newspaper clippings tailored to their interests. She had a special gift for matching the perfect book to each person in her life.

Her love of learning – especially about the mysteries of the universe, the complexity of the mind, and the weirdness of Fibonacci numbers and mammals – persisted through her final days. She greeted death with curiosity and a sincere, heartfelt wish that she could tell us what it was like afterwards.

Jean was preceded in death by her husband Mark and her brothers Tom, Peter, and Denny (Gallagher). She is survived by her daughters Beth (Charlie Cericola) and Mary (Michael Schill); her grandchildren Lucy and Francesca (Cericola); and her sister Sheila (Cross).

She was deeply loved and appreciated by her family and friends, and she will be forever missed.