EUGENE R. CHAMBERLAIN, 91, of Hingham, passed away on Thursday, Dec. 8th, 2011. Husband of the late Helen (Howard) Chamberlain and father of Elizabeth “Betsy” C. Habich of North Reading, Richard R. Chamberlain of Hingham and Anne H. Tuite of Shrub Oak, NY. Grandfather of Christopher “Topher” Chamberlain, Matthew Howard and John “Jack” Ryan Tuite.
Gene, as he was universally known, was born in Chicago, and spent parts of his formative years in London and in his father’s birthplace Prescott, Ontario . On the advice of his father, he enlisted in the Navy before war was declared, in July 1940, and served on the Savannah, the Biloxi, and the Portsmouth, seeing action at Port Lyautey, Morocco (aboard the Savannah in Nov. 1942), and at Truk, Saipan, Palau, Yap islands in the Pacific (aboard the Biloxi, Jan.-May 1944) rising to the rank of Ensign. One shore leave brought him to visit cousins in Hingham, where he met Helen. They married following the war in June 1945, in the living room of Helen’s family home, which later became the center of Chamberlain family life. The marriage was a cornerstone of Gene’s life, and lasted almost sixty years, until Helen’s death in 2004.
Following the war, Gene attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where both he and Helen made lifelong friends, Gene was voted friendliest man on campus, and graduated with BA in Economics. Moving back to Hingham, Gene tried his hand at business, working for the Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company, before finding his true calling working with what were then called foreign students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Perhaps drawing on his own early international experiences, Gene was an early and passionate advocate for the value of including people with different backgrounds in American universities, befriending numerous individual students and becoming active in the new National Association of Foreign Student Advisors (NAFSA), which he served four times as President of the New England Region (1957, 1958, 1975, and 1976) and as President of the national association (1969-70). In recognition of his efforts, MIT awarded him its Billard Award in 1985, for what then Institute President Paul Gray characterized as his “efforts to make MIT a truly international university,” and he was later made an honorary member of the MIT Alumni Association.
Gene’s retirement from MIT in 1986 began a new phase in his life, his passionate devotion to Hingham, Massachusetts, the town which gave him his beloved wife Helen and her extended family. Involvement with the Hingham Historical Society lead to his advocacy for forging ties with other Hingham’s in the world, most notably Hingham, England, and for preservation and promotion of all things Hingham, eventually as president of the society. In 1998, the Hingham Journal honored him as their Citizen of the Year for “work[ing] tirelessly to ensure that Hingham citizens of all ages appreciate their town’s rich past.” He was also an active participant in the Second Parish in Hingham, in later years particularly enjoying the Mens’ Breakfasts and participating in church mentoring programs and lectures, the Hingham chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, volunteered in the public schools, and promoted the legacy of early American painter Isaac Sprague, who in the early 1800’s had lived in the home later occupied by the Howard and Chamberlain families.
A Memorial Service will be conducted on Saturday, Jan. 14th, 2012 at 2 pm, at the Second Parish Church, 685 Main St. (Rt. 228), Hingham. Reception to follow. Visiting hours omitted by request. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Hingham Historical Society. PO Box 434, Hingham, MA 02043 or the Hingham Public Library, 66 Leavitt St., Hingham, MA 02043. The interment is to be private.