Elaine Marie Landry-Pion, a long-time resident of Acton, formerly of Waltham, passed away unexpectedly on May 20, 2021. She was 70 years old. She was the beloved wife of Robert Pion to whom she was married for 42 years.
Elaine was born in Boston and raised in Waltham. She was the third of four children of the late Philip and Jean (Stratton) Landry. She was a proud graduate of St. Mary’s in Waltham and often kept in touch with her classmates and high school friends.
She attended Merrimack College and upon graduation had several teaching positions. One of those was at Readak, a company whose teachers taught reading and comprehensive skills to students in private schools in New England, New York and New Jersey.
She began her career in Higher Education as a Program Director at Bentley University (College) in the Adult Evening Program. While there, she enrolled in the Harvard University School of Education and obtained first a Masters Degree in Education and then her Doctorate. While in the EdD program, she worked at Massachusetts Higher Education and the Harvard Program on Negotiation developing programs and negotiation exercises for these institutions.
With her credentials, she was hired at Babson College as an Associate Professor teaching Conflict Resolution and Negotiations for the Graduate School. She received tenure and continued teaching Negotiations for graduate and undergraduate students. A past winner of the teacher of the year award, Elaine taught at Babson for 29 years. Her passion in teaching was to help students understand, practice and develop skills that would enhance their professional careers. The rapport she had with them was remarkable and for many extended beyond graduation.
Elaine was a great fan of Boston Sports teams and enjoyed the banter with friends and family over wins, losses, “lousy calls”, referee mistakes and coaching decisions. She would always say, after the fact, that whoever won was her pick.
Of most importance to Elaine was her love and devotion to her family, her husband Bob, her siblings, friends and especially to the nieces and nephews. With the nieces and nephews, there were sleepovers, museum visits, theater trips, cookie making parties and other fun activities that were accompanied with a dose of Elaine’s shared value of education. She enjoyed participating in and attending school events, sporting activities, plays and of course, graduations. She continued to be delighted in the birth of the latest round of children, the grand nieces and nephews.
Her family will miss her thoughtful and playful spirit along with her wit, creativity, spontaneity and above all her capacity to love.
In addition to her husband, Elaine is survived by her siblings, Patricia Landry of Maynard MA, Kathleen Bergen, husband Gilbert of Bradenton FL and Philip Landry and his wife, Claire of Plymouth, MA. She also leaves her many nieces and nephews: Michael Pion, New Bedford; Christopher Pion, New Bedford, MA; Jennifer Lamora (Bergen), spouse Joseph, Sarasota, FL; Timothy Bergen, partner Caitlin Cone, San Francisco CA; Carolyn Marzilli (Landry), spouse Jonathan, Walpole, MA; Christine Cavallo (Landry) spouse Alex, Medfield, MA; Douglas Landry, fiancée Alethea Daheshiar, Denver CO.
Services for Elaine will be held privately.
Those who wish may make memorial donations to: either the Acton Food Pantry www.actonfoodpantry.org/ or to Household Goods, Acton. www.householdgoods.org/donate/
Condolences may be sent to Robert Pion 191 Central St. Acton, MA 01720
Memorial page: www.actonfuneralhome.com