JACKIE MACFARLANE May 22, 1943 – Nov. 25, 2024
Jackie MacFarlane passed away peacefully at the age of 81 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, after a long battle with the motor neuron disease ALS. She is survived by her husband Bob, their three children John (Colleen), Tom (Anne), and Bill (Juniper), and five grandchildren, Chiara, Wilson, Amara, Tarn, and Claire.
She was born Janet Brooke Wilson on May 22, 1943 in Claremont, California, but her family and friends have always known her as “Jackie”. During her career as a math teacher, her students knew her as “Mrs. MacFarlane”, and later in life, her grandchildren knew her as “Banjo”.
Jackie grew up as the middle child in a family of five kids. Her father was a teacher at a private boys’ school (Webb School in Claremont), and their house was at the top of the senior boys’ dorm. She ate her meals in a dining room, one girl with 180 boys, and she became like a sister to most of them. Her father was a violist, and from him she learned how to practice the violin. From her mother, she learned how to be kind.
Her family, including three sons and five grandchildren, was always the most important thing to her. She met her husband, Bob, in college and knew they were perfect for each other. After 62 years of marriage, they were still perfect for each other. They spent their first married years in Pittsburgh, where Bob was in graduate school and Jackie earned her BS in Math, before moving to Los Alamos in 1967. In Los Alamos, with its plentiful outdoor and educational opportunities, they found an ideal place to raise their kids.
Jackie lived in Los Alamos for 56 years. She was an Assistant Coach for the Los Alamos High School swim team and an active member of both the Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Fe Community Orchestra. She was also involved in several local musical theater productions, both as a musician and as an actor. She taught math (and behavior) at Los Alamos Middle School (LAMS), and to emphasize that we learn best from our mistakes, she gave extra credit when students made corrections on their tests. When one of her students died mid-year, she led her class in publishing a school newspaper, The Midschool Monitor, in his honor, and then worked with groups of dedicated students to publish that paper twice a year for the rest of her years at LAMS.
After retiring from teaching, she played string quartets weekly and later became an avid bluegrass banjo player. She played fiddle and banjo (along with Bob on the bass) in a bluegrass band called “Quatro”, performing in various venues. She passed on her love of music to every member of the extended MacFarlane clan, and family get-togethers have always involved playing music of all kinds.
Jackie was a lifelong athlete and rose early every day for a run and a swim. She competed in Masters swim meets and in many long trail races, including the Pikes Peak Marathon, the BB Fifty, and the Sandia Crossing Marathon.
Jackie lived a full and rich 81 years. She remarked that she has no regrets in life, and that the best decision of her life was to marry Bob. At her request, no funeral will be held, and she asked that in lieu of flowers, any donations in her memory could be made to the Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra (LASO) or ALS United Rocky Mountain.