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- [S5] Obituary.
Jennifer Miller Gamache
January 19, 1971 - March 3, 2022
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Jennifer Miller Gamache, mother, wife, sister, and educator, died March 3, 2022, following an extended and heroic 19-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 51. Jenny passed peacefully at home surrounded by her family and loving friends, who will miss her cheerful optimism, positive attitude, sense of humor, skillful cake baking and mastery at Scrabble.
Jenny spent more than 20 years as a special education teacher, the past 16 in Seattle Public Schools. Before her illness, she worked as the special education teacher at TOPS K-8, where she also spent two years as head teacher. Jenny had a positive and enduring impact on the hundreds of special-needs students and parents that she worked with. She kept in touch with many of her former students, dozens of whom reached out to support her in these difficult past months. In 2006, Jenny became the founding summer camp director at the Seattle Children's PlayGarden, an inclusive playground aimed at providing a safe and encouraging outdoor environment for children of all abilities, with a focus on those with special needs. Jenny worked with PlayGarden for more than a decade and her impact lives on in the songs, activities and sense of community that define the summer camp program. Jenny was also the biggest fan of George Michael on this continent.
Jenny was born Jan. 19, 1971, in Vancouver, B.C., to Beatrice and Adrien Gamache. She spent her childhood in Lake Oswego, OR, before moving to Kirkland, WA, where she graduated from Lake Washington High School in 1989. She received a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and a Teaching Certificate from the University of Washington (UW) in 1993, a Masters of Education in Special Education from Columbia University in 1996, and a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies from UW in 2020.
In 1986, while a counselor at North Bend's Camp Wascowitz for children with muscular dystrophy, Jenny met Geoff Miller, whom she would later marry on July 11, 1998, at the University Unitarian Church. Jenny taught at St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's School in Manhattan from 1999 through 2003 while Geoff pursued a law degree from NYU. When the twin towers in New York were felled by terrorists on 9/11, Jenny - then four months pregnant -- spent days as a volunteer delivering food and water to first responders searching for survivors in "The Pit." Jenny and Geoff have two amazing daughters, Madeleine, born Feb. 26, 2002, and Abigail, born April 10, 2005.
Jenny is survived by her husband, daughters, sisters Monique (David) McFadden and Chris (Judy) Gamache, half-sister Madeleine Mackenzie, a large and loving extended family and a host of friends and colleagues, all of whom will miss her terribly. She was preceded in death by her parents.
The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, mourners consider a donation to the Seattle Children's PlayGarden or Youth Theatre Northwest in Jenny's name.
Published on March 13, 2022
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1971 - 2022 (51 years)
