Mary Jo Buck died peacefully at home in Bedminster, NJ on April 9, 2024. She was born on May 14, 1923. The daughter of Harold and Arleen Haines, she was raised in LeRoy Ohio (now known as Westfield Center). She grew up during the Great Depression, learning an ethic of frugality that she carried throughout her life.
She graduated from Muskingum College, New Concord OH, with a B.S. in Chemistry. At Muskingum, she met her future husband, Thomas Marion Buck. They were married on Nov. 18, 1944, while Tom was serving in the Navy during WWII. After the war, they lived in Pittsburgh, PA for five years before relocating to Plainfield, NJ. They later moved to Basking Ridge, NJ and finally to Bedminster, NJ.
Jo was a long-time active member, deacon and elder of the Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church in Plainfield. She was a consistent contributor to a variety of charities and travelled widely in Europe and Asia with her husband. She was an avid reader, an excellent cook, and was attentive to progressive health advice before this became popular. She had a lifelong love of music and practiced the flute every day for years, often playing duets with Tom, who played the clarinet.
Jo created a beautiful, warm and artistic home. She raised 5 children, was a wonderful mother and skilled manager of family finances. For twenty years, she worked for Hartford Steam Boiler, servicing prominent accounts in Marketing Support. After retiring from HSB, she worked for ten years as manager of Grace's Kitchen, a soup kitchen sponsored by Grace Episcopal Church in Plainfield, NJ. She was welcoming and friendly to a wide variety of customers and coordinated volunteers during cooking days when the kitchen was open to the public. Jo retired one month before her 90th birthday. She spent much of the next decade reading, walking, serving at Valerie's Soup Kitchen at Crescent Avenue Church, writing letters, and watching dogs take their owners for a walk.
Jo was predeceased by her daughter, Charlotte Elizabeth, in 1978, by her husband, Thomas Marion, in 2000, and by her son-in-law, Nick Amster, in 2020. She is survived by children David, Lucinda, Sarah, and Marian; sons-in-law Raj and Tom; grandchildren Bethany, Annika, Rosalie, Claire and Eli; great-grandchildren Atticus and Josephine. Jo donated her body to the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Anatomical Association.