Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

Wellesley High School Writer: Rev. Jean Niven Lenk (1972)

          Since she graduated from both high school and college a year early, Jean received her B.A. from UMass at age 20, and entered a corporate career, becoming V.P. of Human Resosurces in financial services.  But after 20 years in business, she heard God’s call to ministry and entered the seminary, graduating first in her class from Andover Newton Theological School, and was ordained into Christian ministry in 1999.

            Jean served as pastor of congregational churches in Topsfield and Stoughton until “out of the blue” on Good Friday 2013 she received a cancer diagnosis of Stage IV Leiomyosarcoma.  After conducting Easter celebrations two days later, she left the ministry to concentrate on her health and family.  She also began a CaringBridge blog of her journey as a cancer patient, which was eventually published as the book Fertilizer Happens: A Pastor’s Faith, Calling, and Journey with Cancer. 

            After eight years of trying every possible treatment, as she chronicled in her memoir, Jean lost her final battle and died February 27, 2021.