Geraldine M. Jack of East Quogue died on February 28, 2019. She was 77. Born on December 4, 1941, to Joseph and Nellie Tumminia in Jamestown, she attended the Women’s Christian Association Hospital School of Nursing after high school, and would become one of only 799 women to complete their nursing certification program offered from 1885 to 1965. She then relocated to New York City and began her career working as a psychiatric nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital and later became clinical director at The Sisters of Good Shepherd Residence for Teenage Girls in Lower Manhattan. Acting as both a counselor and nurse practitioner, she became very interested in working with children and their families and would go on to spend the rest of her career working for the NYS Department of Health as a public health nurse. She spent her time in the community, visiting with families in their homes, evaluating health concerns and helping to provide assistance to underserved children throughout the city, who were struggling with mental and physical health issues.
Ms. Jack was a fighter, a defender, a learner and a teacher, survivors said. Having survived cancer a number of times throughout her lifetime, she proved to be the definition of a true warrior. At a time in her life when many other women would have started to settle down at home, with the support of her husband, Tom, she continued to work hard in her field. During her tenure as a public health nurse, she went on to earn both a bachelor’s degree in nursing (1979) and a master’s in nursing (1996), graduating with honors from the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, focusing her study on autism and how it impacts children and their families. It was during this time that she would also be appointed by Governor Hugh Carey, to sit on the New York State Council on Developmental Disabilities.
Upon retirement, she and her husband, relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she became an ad hoc instructor in nursing at Massachusetts General Hospital School for Health Professionals. It wasn’t until 2004 that they finally relocated to East Quogue full-time, living in the home that was originally purchased by Mr. Jack’s parents as a summer house back in the 1950s.
Most recently, she had been working as a volunteer with Birthright International and was a longtime member and recent co-chairperson of the East Quogue Citizens Advisory Committee. She continued to advocate for the health of children in her community, speaking out in support of natural resources and clean drinking water.
She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Thomas; and their two rescued cats, Aaron and Fluffy. She is also survived by an older brother, James Tumminia of Jamestown and his three daughters, Debra Kerrison of Lockport, Cheryl Eckler of Indiana and Natalie Peters of Maryland.
Visitation will take place on Friday, March 8, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 at the Werner Rothwell Funeral Home in Westhampton Beach. A funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, March 9, at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Quiogue, with burial to follow at the Oakwood Cemetery in East Quogue.
Memorial donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
on Mar 4, 2019