VALERIE CLAIR STELLING

Valerie Clair Stelling was born Valerie DeLuce Clair on July 22, 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts, and passed away on March 27, 2026, a resident of Lexington, Massachusetts. Valerie was the middle daughter of Miles Nelson Clair and Carolyn Green. Valerie grew up in Waban, Massachusetts, and attended The Winsor School and Wellesley College (class of 1957). She spent eighty-nine summers swimming in, sailing on and visiting her beloved Buzzards Bay.

Valerie was fiercely independent and private. She was masterful at turning the conversation away from herself to focus on younger people, their interests, and the newest ideas. She delighted in the activities of her daughters, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, grandnieces and nephews, and most recently, her great-grandson.

It was on a blind date that Valerie met the love of her life, MIT senior John D Stelling. After a courtship of waltzes, walks, and ice cream, Valerie and John married on December 22, 1956. Together they enjoyed a life committed to family, hard work, and engagement with the community around them. While John was pursuing a master's in engineering at Cornell University, Valerie found a perfect role blending her love of the ocean and biology to become a research assistant studying shark sensory systems under Dr Perry Gilbert. Never one to flinch from a mouse trap or a spider, Valerie dissected shark eyes until it was time for her eldest daughter to be born.

While raising her two daughters, Valerie obtained a master's in library science and was very active in the town of Carlisle, Massachusetts. Valerie helped start the town newspaper, The Carlisle Mosquito, and became a regular reporter on town business. From a young age, Valerie was a prolific reader. She told her children many stories of being scolded for reading at inappropriate times. This did nothing to dissuade her from reading everything she could find (fiction, non-fiction, biographies, essays, science texts, newspapers, and later her grandchildren's master's theses). Valerie enjoyed selecting books and creating children's programming as Assistant Librarian at Carlisle's Gleason Public Library. Her children and grandchildren greatly benefited from the constant stream of book recommendations across her life. Valerie liked to make her thoughts known and wrote many letters to family and friends, as well as to city council members, nonprofits, and heads of corporations like Starbucks (why weren't they providing a healthier option?). Moving to Cambridge and Cataumet once her children were out of the house, Valerie managed, with kindness and compassion, a small local business. She swam daily and was actively involved in MIT alumni activities with John.

The family will remember Valerie's fierce love for and dedication to her family in addition to her wry (some say mischievous) smile and her understated elegance whether dressed for the Boston Symphony Orchestra or traveling abroad, reading yet another book, sailing in her favorite Center for Wooden Boats sweatshirt, or digging in her garden at the Cape.

In lieu of memorial flowers, please consider a donation to the Bourne Conservation Trust. https://bourneconservationtrust.org/

Bourne Conservation Trust

P.O. Box 203

Cataumet, MA 02534-0203