Josie Patterson, 69, Production, Business Manager

From Douglass Funeral Service

Josephine Poole Patterson died May 26, 2026 at her home in Amherst, MA. in the embrace of her family and hospice caregivers. The cause was Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Josie was sixty-nine years old…

Josie received a B.A. from Vassar in 1978 and four decades later an M.A. in conflict resolution and mediation from UMass/Boston in 2017. She was a diligent student. She loved school and always read the supplemental reading list.

Her professional career was spent in television and radio programming at WGBH in Boston, with time out to raise her sons, then as the communications director for Cambridge Public Schools and finally as the marketing director at the MIT Museum.

Josie was a generous and self-assured person who moved through the world with grace and confidence. She was unafraid. She made friends easily and held on to them faithfully. She loved all children, flowers, and a good laugh, even when it came at her expense. She was the best neighbor one could ever ask for. She lived and raised her family on Perry Street in Cambridgeport for thirty-five years. Her door was always open and her front porch thrummed with conversation and laughter on warm summer nights. She loved reading, dogs and cats, birding, obsessively organizing the spaces she lived in, Bohemian outfits and feathers in her hair. But her most important quality was her honesty. One always knew where one stood with Josie.

She also had a stubborn streak, an out of tune alto singing voice, and, though a good athlete, she never liked skiing fast or games where you had to keep score. Nobody’s perfect.

A celebration of Josie’s life will be held on Thursday, June 25 at noon at the Inn at Boltwood, 30 Boltwood Avenue in Amherst, MA. As it was throughout her life, all are welcome.

• Read the full obituary at Douglass Funeral Service