Amherst, Jean Adams Robbins died on March 6, 2017 at home at Applewood at Amherst, Massachusetts.  She was born in Coshocton, Ohio in 1920, and married Jacob Robbins of Yonkers, New York in 1949.  They lived in New York until he joined the Public Health Service in 1954, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where he died in 2008 at the age of 85, still working actively in his field of Endocrinology.  Jean is survived by her daughter Alice Robbins of Amherst, married to Walter Denny; her son Mark Robbins of Seattle, married to Robin Kinney Robbins; and by her grandchildren Andrew Robbins, Katie Robbins, Jenny Robbins, and Matthew Denny.  Jean’s daughter Susan, of Shelburne Falls, died in 2009.

Jean graduated from Flora Stone Mather Western Reserve College in Cleveland in 1942.  She first taught music in Ohio schools, and then pursued a professional career as a cellist with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the New Orleans Symphony Orchestras.  Her summers were spent in advanced study with the renowned cellist and teacher Diran Alexanian in New York City, where she met and then married Jack Robbins, who was then finishing his medical studies at Cornell Medical School.

Upon moving to the Washington DC area, Jean was active in local orchestras and chamber music.  She performed with the National Gallery of Art Chamber Orchestra, the orchestras of Washington National Opera and the Washington Ballet, and also taught cello lessons privately for many decades.  She was a long-time member of the Friday Morning Music Club and the Kindler Cello Society, and was active in supporting music in the public schools and locally-sponsored music competitions for young people.  Her renowned New Year’s parties in Bethesda were beloved both by the musicians who came to play chamber music in two or three different rooms, and by the attendees from the medical and scientific community.  Her gracious manner and open-hearted hospitality endeared her to many visiting scientists from abroad who came to work in research at NIH, as well as to numerous musicians both local and those who came as visitors to the Washington area.

In the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, where she moved in 2009, Jean took over concert organizing at Applewood for several years, was a devoted and generous supporter of Arcadia Players, and was a frequent concert-goer who enjoyed the rich diversity of classical music in western Massachusetts.

In lieu of flowers, Jean’s family suggests donations to Hospice of the Fisher Home in Amherst Massachusetts, to Arcadia Players of Northampton, Massachusetts, to the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, or any classical music organization of your choice, as a recognition and continuation of her generous support of music over many decades.