Join us in commemorating the life of our longtime member and friend, Rebecca Ramsay. There will be a time during the service to offer any stories or memories you wish to share.
If you are unable to join us in person, you can join us online via Zoom at the following link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9823959325?pwd=K3lxTE43bTQ0dVBqRFJOY2lzS3J0Zz09
Rebecca Linnell Ramsay, 80, died peacefully on May 31, 2026, at The Current South Shore in Weymouth, Massachusetts. She had spent most of her life in Cambridge, a city that suited her perfectly: quirky, intellectually serious, and full of hidden gardens.
Rebecca was born in Concord on January 28, 1946, the daughter of Robert and Eve (Dyer) Ramsay. She earned a Master’s Degree in French Literature and spent much of her career at Harvard University, supporting faculty in the Economics Department. But her education was never limited to what a degree could certify. She read continuously, attended lectures at the French Library, participated in French reading and poetry groups, followed the politics and human rights movements of Central America with sustained attention, and showed up for decades to a Suitcase Seminar whenever our denomination offered one. Learning, for Rebecca, was not a phase of life; it was her whole approach to it.
She also loved birds and animals and gardens with a devotion that was more than sentiment. It showed up in how she tended things, how she paid attention to the natural world, and even how she ate. Rebecca was a lifelong vegetarian and she avoided sugar with a discipline that most of us could not match (and she was not shy about recommending that others do the same!).
Those of us who knew her from her decades as a member of Hillside knew her as someone who consistently showed up to serve. She sang in the choir. She edited the newsletter. She served on the Church Council. She greeted people at the door. She helped with coffee hour. She attended Women’s World Days of Prayer and women’s spiritual growth groups. And, most telling of her character, she volunteered to mow the lawn, biking over in the August heat and refusing to use anything but a manual push mower.
Her life outside the walls of our church was equally full. She sang for decades with the Somerville Community Chorus and later with the Senior Center chorus. She volunteered with Fresh Pond cleanup. She belonged to an organization that tended apple trees in Cambridge yards, harvested the fruit, and made applesauce, returning some to the homeowners. She spent weeks of vacation cleaning up sections of the Appalachian Trail in exchange for room and board. She skied and rowed, sailed and canoed, ran races, ice skated, and danced ballet. She kayaked. She drew and painted. She printed her own Christmas cards by hand, block print by block print.
Rebecca was preceded in death by her brothers Stephen and Robert. She is survived by her nephew Todd Newton Ramsay, his wife Leann, and a wider circle of family and friends who were lucky enough to have known her well.
There is a kind of person whose presence registers quietly but whose absence registers loudly. Rebecca Ramsay was that person. She never needed to be the center of attention. She was too busy doing the actual work: the mowing, the harvesting, the singing, the showing up. We give thanks to God for a life lived with that much intention and that much grace.
In lieu of flowers, her family invites donations in her memory to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), honoring her lifelong love of animals, birds, and wildlife. Donations may be made at www.worldwildlife.org/donate
