Folsom Funeral Service

Barbara ‘Bobby’ (née Errickson) Jorgensen passed away peacefully in her sleep on June 15^th after a lengthy battle with dementia. Her loving family was by her side at the end.

Born May 6, 1933, Bobby grew up in Freehold, New Jersey where her father was a prominent local dentist and civic leader. A bright student, her greatest source of pride was her twelve-year perfect attendance record at First Presbyterian Church Sunday School. Bobby attended Trenton State Teachers College—now The College of New Jersey—where she majored in early childhood education. It was while a freshman at Trenton State that she met her future husband, Robert ‘Bob’ Jorgensen, whom she would marry in the spring of 1954, their senior year. Thereafter, and for 70 more years, they were simply ‘Bob and Bobby.’

With Bob’s commissioning upon graduation as a Second Lieutenant in the US Marine Corps, the newlywed couple headed straight off to Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia for their first posting. For Bobby, after just three days of teaching at a local school, she knew immediately that teaching was decidedly not her calling. Instead, she focused on making a new home of their own. Their first of two children was born in 1956, shortly before the end of Bob’s military service commitment. That spring, the young family moved to Westwood, Massachusetts where Bob took up a teaching appointment at Roxbury Latin School in West Roxbury—a position he would retire from 40 years later.

Bobby was both a traditional homemaker and a thoroughly modern woman in the world of America’s post-war ’50s. She was a renowned baker, sewist, and knitter. A talented singer and dancer, she and Bob were mainstays of the First Parish of Westwood Couples Club annual musicals. When her son and daughter were settled in grade school, she began the first of a number of jobs that took full advantage of her considerable technical and administrative skills. For many years, she was a dental technician at Westwood Research Laboratories. After both children were off at college, she took on the role of Executive Secretary of the Star Island Corporation—the owner and operator of Star Island, a rustic conference center off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire—commuting daily to downtown Boston.

Travel was the one constant in Bobby’s life. Childhood summers centered around her grandfather’s beach cottage in Seaside Park, New Jersey. Throughout her married life, summers included a week on Star Island at one of their Unitarian Universalist family conferences. In the summer of 1968, she organized a family camping trip across the United States. In their 1962 Buick Invicta station wagon towing a Coleman pop-up camper, they visited family and college and Marine Corps friends while stopping at iconic sites across the country. Her wanderlust took her to all 50 states and numerous countries around the world, including a solo trip to New Zealand when she was in her 70s.

In 2017, she and Bob left their Westwood home of 60 years for the comfort of independent living at One Wingate Way in Needham Heights. There they made many new friends while remaining close to longtime friends and neighbors. In 2022, Bobby moved into the memory care wing at Wingate, just a short walk down the hall from Bob, allowing him to visit her several times a day.

Bobby was blessed with a close and loving family, including her husband of 70 years, Bob; son Dean and daughter-in-law Aileen of Canton, Georgia; daughter Kyle and son-in-law Mark of Dover, New Hampshire; three grandchildren, Christopher, William, and Hillary; and six great grandchildren, Piper, Brendan, Tyler, Norah, Ira, and Harlow. The family is especially grateful to the staff of Wingate Residences of Needham, Compassionate Care Hospice of Woburn, and KRS Senior Care Services of Wayland for making her final months and weeks as comfortable and calm as they were.

Arrangements are being made by Folsom Funeral Service of Westwood. The family will hold a Celebration of Life in the fall.

Tribute gifts in honor of Bobby may be made to Star Island Corporation, 30 Middle Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801, or Compassionate Care Hospice, 800 W Cummings Park Suite 3100, Woburn, MA 01801.

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