Jean (Ferriss) Leich

CORNWALL BRIDGE — Jean (Ferriss) Leich died on May 24, 2015, at the age of 94, at Geer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in North Canaan. 

Born in Manhattan on Aug. 27, 1920, she was the daughter of Hugh Ferriss, an architectural delineator whose work strongly influenced the development of the modern skyscraper city; and Dorothy (Lapham) Ferriss, an artist and illustrator for Vanity Fair magazine. 

She received a B.A. in English from Swarthmore College in 1942, and an M.A. in speech and theater studies from Louisiana Tech University in 1971. 

Her professional career was divided between journalism and teaching. She was first employed in the circulation department of The New York Times, and at Newsweek magazine. 

During the Roosevelt administration, she became the Washington correspondent for a group of Midwest radio stations, filing daily news reports and serving as one of the “ladies of the press” who were invited to Eleanor Roosevelt’s news conferences. 

After World War II, she returned to New York as a reporter for Life magazine. In 1950, she married John Foster Leich, whom she had met at Swarthmore. 

Following the arrival of her two children, she worked part-time as an editorial researcher for American Heritage and other magazines in New York and London. 

In 1965, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as an editor at the book division of National Geographic.

In 1968, the family moved again, to Ruston, La. There she received her M.A. and became an instructor at Louisiana Tech University in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program for foreign-born students. 

She and her husband initiated and directed a year-long study-abroad program in Rome, Italy, and summer study programs in Mexico. 

The couple retired to northwest Connecticut in 1990, spending summers in a cottage in Cornwall Bridge that they had built in 1952, and winters in Sharon. She served as secretary and president of the Taconic Learning Center and as a part-time ESL instructor and Talking Books reader at the public library in Litchfield. 

In 2003, she and her husband became two of the early residents of Geer Village, where they were active in community affairs. 

An accomplished writer, she published “Architectural Visions, the Drawings of Hugh Ferriss” (1980, Whitney Library of Design, New York), a work funded by a Brunner Award research grant from the American Institute of Architects, together with a number of short stories and articles. 

All her life, she loved the theater. In Louisiana, she was a founding member, president, actor and director for the Ruston Community Theatre. 

Following retirement, she directed several shows in Cornwall, including a 2003 performance of highlights from “The Fantasticks,” in honor of its author, part-time Cornwall resident Tom Jones. 

She taught classes in theater history at the Taconic Learning Center, and organized and directed a lively play-reading group at Geer Village. 

She also had a great love of poetry and a great memory for poems; even at the end of her days, she was able to recite long stretches of Yeats, Dickinson and Millay, with vivid expression. 

She leaves her husband of 65 years; her daughter, Ellen (Leich) Moon of Cornwall Bridge and Ellen’s husband, David Colbert; her son, Christopher Leich of Arlington, Mass., and his wife, Judith Leich; and three grandchildren, Hannah Colbert, Meredith Leich and Nathaniel Leich.

 A memorial will be held at a later date. Donations in her memory may be made to Geer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.