Pelham, MA – Linda Jonason Faulkingham died peacefully with her family at her side on June 26, 2026 at the Center for Extended Care at Amherst, after a long struggle with dementia.
Linda Ann Jonason was born on August 21, 1942 in Quincy, Massachusetts of Swedish immigrant parents, and she grew up in nearby Weymouth. She completed her BA in English at Wheaton (Ill.) College and two months after graduation in 1964, married Ralph Faulkingham. She and Ralph studied the Hausa language at Michigan State University, then French in Paris. She was with Ralph for his sixteen months of dissertation field research in rural Niger, West Africa, creating a tidy household in a mud hut with no electricity or running water. When Ralph joined the anthropology faculty at UMass in 1970, they moved to Pelham, where they raised their daughters Sarah and Lisa.
Linda became publicist for the UMass Department of Music and Dance before becoming the Director of Development at the UMass Fine Arts Center in 1983. Her contagious enthusiasm for the arts and her skill in building a community of supporters accelerated giving. She inaugurated the Friends of the Fine Arts Center, the annual FAC gala, and the Tillis Endowment for the Arts. She considered her twenty years at the Fine Arts Center her most rewarding work years, empowered by FAC Director Dr. Frederick C. Tillis.
In retirement, she took on volunteer development roles with Musicorda in South Hadley, the Amherst Historical Society, Pelham’s Cultural Council, and the Stewardship Team at First Congregational Church in Amherst. She also sang in the First Church choir.
In the year 2000, she and Ralph bought a cabin on Squam Lake, New Hampshire, not far from where they had first met as teenagers in 1960, and they enjoyed many summers there, regularly welcoming family and friends to visit. Perhaps a feature of her proud Swedish ancestry, she relished the first swim of the year in the spring not long after ice out, as well as the last one in the Fall, often cajoling or daring others to join her in the clear, cold water.
Linda’s contagious exuberance spilled out everywhere: there was always more delicious food than family or guests could want; she created playful adventures for her young daughters and then her young grandchildren in the kitchen or in the big back yard, or on vacation on Cape Cod. She was ready to go the extra mile in any endeavor, especially if there were food and music involved.
Linda cherished her communities and relationships, making an exceptional effort to create special and sustained moments for the people she loved. From hand painting a doll bed for her granddaughter to baking an extravagant cake at Lisa’s wedding rehearsal dinner, she explicitly sought to make life adventuresome. Throughout her life Linda was blessed that her work was also her delight; she threw her whole self into whatever she was doing, and inspired others to do the same.
Linda leaves behind Ralph, her husband of 62 years, daughter Sarah, her husband Michael Rogowski, and their children Max, Ryan, and Sadie as well as daughter Lisa, her husband Jim Hunt and their children, Sam, and Natalie. She was predeceased by her sister Shirley Poole and is survived by Shirley’s son Mark Young and his children Vanessa Durgin and Corey Young, as well as many cousins in America and Sweden.
Linda’s family is very grateful for the skillful compassionate care she received in the Dharma unit at the Center for Extended Care at Amherst.
A celebration of Linda’s life will be held at the First Congregational Church, 165 Main Street, Amherst on August 22 at 2:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts in Linda’s honor may be sent to the church or to the Fine Arts Center at UMass.
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