Jean C. Gascoigne, Of NJSGA Advisory Committee Of Board Members, Passes Away At 87

Mrs. Gascoigne, who lived in Boonton, most recently served on the NJSGA’s advisory committee of past board members. A trophy bearing her name is awarded each year since 2013 to the low net winner of the NJSGA Women’s Four-Ball Championship.

She was a nine -time club champion at Rockaway River C.C. In her spare time, Mrs. Gascoigne was a volunteer at The Mental Health Association of Morris County and she was very active in both the NJSGA as a volunteer at championships, and the Women's Metropolitan Golf Association. She spent years volunteering her time on behalf of the NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation.

She came to the NJSGA in 2008 as a liaison for the New Jersey State Women’s Golf Committee, the precursor to the Women’s Committee of the NJSGA.

“She was a golfer’s golfer: knew the rules, the terminology, and etiquette and was a tireless advocate for women in the game," said Carol Graybeal of the NJSGA Women's Committee.

Mrs. Gascoigne is the daughter of Brig. General John Tupper Cole and Janet MacKay Cole. Born into a military family, Jean's father, grandfather and great-grandfather were graduates of West Point. During her life as an Army brat, she lived in such places as Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and Fort Bliss in Texas, as well as Thailand, where her father was a U.S. military advisor.

Growing up, she was surrounded by horses, and one of her favorite things to do as a young girl was to ride. Her father was a cavalry officer and captain of the U.S. Equestrian team at the 1956 Olympics while her mother won many medals at the National Horse Show in New York.

Mrs. Gascoigne graduated from the St. Mary's School in Garden City, N.Y., in 1947 and from Vassar College in 1951. In the fall of 1951, she attended the University of Virginia Law School, where she met Robert W. Gascoigne. The two were married in Edgecomb, Me., in June, 1952.

She had one brother who predeceased her, Frederick MacKay Cole, formerly of McLean, Va. Mrs. Gascoigne is survived by her ex-husband, Robert W. Gascoigne; her eldest son, William and his wife, Ellen, and their two adult children, Jacqueline and Pierce, and younger son, Robert "Gup" and his wife, Louise.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Mental Health Association of Essex & Morris Counties, 33 Fullerton Ave., Montclair, N.J. 07042.