Quincy woman is remembered for caring, devotion to community
Sheila Lynch, a 23-year-old college student from Quincy, was doing plant cell research in a cave in Texas last July when the unthinkable happened. Something she touched or came into contact with infected her with a powerful toxin. She could have been bitten. No one knows for sure.
Whatever it was, it made her very sick. She returned to her family in Quincy, and died a few days later.
"She was sick, she got better, and then she passed away very suddenly," said her sister, Elizabeth. "In a lot of ways, the shock is still there."
Tests for the toxic agent have not yet produced answers about what Sheila Lynch encountered in her biology work on that ill-fated trip, her sister said.
But Sheila Lynch's memory lives on. This week, Boston University's School of Education is dedicating to Lynch a two-day program on "The Ethics of Caring. "
The event -- to be held today and tomorrow -- will honor Lynch's life and recognizes that even "a very young person can sometimes make a great impression," said Bernice Lerner, the director of t he Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character at BU's School of Education.
"We're all mortal.... What do we leave behind?" Lerner said, speaking of the center's ethical mission.
What Sheila Lynch left behind is an example to others, say those who knew her.
Lynch, one of six children in her Quincy family, was devoted to the foster children the family took in, said her sister, Elizabeth. Later, she took part in her college's Appalachian services program at college, traveling south to help rebuild houses. She spent a summer in Papua New Guinea with Habitat for Humanity. She volunteered for Best Buddies, which pairs volunteers with young people with mental handicaps.
"She had a way of figuring out what people needed and making sure they felt special and important," said Elizabeth, who, like her sister, attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.
When Sheila Lynch left the state to attend graduate school at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, she was eager to find the Best Buddies program there and to sign up. Her Philadelphia buddy "hit the best-buddy jackpot when she got my sister," Elizabeth said.
As a graduate student, Sheila Lynch's fellowship required teaching science to children in the city's primary schools. "She loved that," Elizabeth said. "That was her favorite part of being in Philadelphia. She loved learning but she loved being able to share that with another person." Lynch planned a school carnival with rides and games so extensive that it drew media coverage.
Lerner said the center decided to dedicate its two-day "institute" on caring in education to Sheila Lynch "because of how she lived her life, the virtues she exemplified."
Lerner learned of Lynch's tragic early death through her father, Harry Lynch, director of the Newman School in Boston and a colleague of the center. "He's interested in the things we are interested in -- how to help students make wise choices, how to flourish in our lives."
Lerner said BU's Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character helps administrators, teachers, and parents fulfill their responsibilities as "moral educators." "What is all this about anyway?" she said. "What are we in this enterprise [of education] for?"
Students training to be teachers find these questions "very important," Lerner said, but also say that such questions are neglected. "There are so many things on their plate. They need time to reflect."
Attended by educators and students, "Ethics of Caring" is scheduled to include sessions on ethical decision-making and character education, talks by a poet (BU's Rosanna Warren ), and a headmaster (Cushing Academy 's James Tracy ), a panel on theological perspectives on caring with clergy participants, and a Buddhist perspective by a professor of religion (David Eckel).
Elizabeth Lynch is also scheduled to speak about how her sister demonstrated the ethics of caring in her own life. "She's an example to me of generosity and kindness, of a life very well lived."
Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com. 