Christine Reardon, educator, environmental activist in Plymouth

CHRISTINE M. REARDON

Christine M. Reardon, an environmental activist, educator, and caretaker, died April 10 at her Plymouth home of cancer. She was 59.

A native of Dorchester, Ms. Reardon graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston and received a master's degree in physical education from Boston State College. She taught physical education at Belmont High School for more than five years and coached soccer and tennis.

She moved from her home in Revere 17 years ago to Plymouth to take care of her mentally disabled sister, Rosalie.

Their brother, James of Plymouth and Dorchester, described that transition as difficult.

"Christine was a city girl. She was a DJ at nightclubs, she got her license to be a barber and her license to be a bartender," her brother said. "In the first couple of years she'd say 'I'm going nuts. All I hear are crickets and frogs in the middle of the woods and I can't see the Citgo sign over Fenway.' "

Still, Ms. Reardon gladly took over the responsibility of taking care of her sister, who called her a "guardian angel."

In 2003, Ms. Reardon received her master's of art in ministry from St. John's Seminary. Friends and neighbors remember her as a spiritual, inquisitive woman who helped others get in touch with their spirituality.

In Plymouth, Ms. Reardon was struck by what she saw as the progressing overdevelopment of the county, her family said. This provoked the beginning of her extensive environmental work.

She volunteered with the Nature Conservancy, testing wetlands and natural habitats to determine if they were areas that should be preserved. She was appointed chairwoman of public lands and commissioner of Plymouth conservation by the Board of Selectmen and was a member of the town's Open Space Committee.

She certified many vernal pools in the Plymouth area, preserving the natural wetlands and preventing the extinction of numerous plants.

In addition to her brother and sister, Ms. Reardon leaves three other brothers, Thomas of Plymouth, Daniel of Brockton, and Stephen of West Brookfield; and two other sisters, Ann of Plymouth and Marguerite Mooney of Brockton.

A memorial service will be held Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in St. Margaret's Church in Buzzards Bay.