Bonnie-Jean Hupprich McLean Fund

Bonnie-Jean Hupprich McLean, a lifelong resident of Wakefield passed away on December 26, 2008 after a courageous battle with leukemia and lymphoma. To honor this woman who did so much for others, her family along with a group of her lifelong girl friends, decided a scholarship would be a fitting tribute to her memory.

Bonnie-Jean was a member of the Wakefield High School Class of 1959. Following high school she trained as a nurse at Melrose Wakefield Hospital. After three years of working as a nurse at Melrose Wakefield Hospital and then later at Mass. General Hospital, she began working at what was then called Normandy House, an 82-patient extended care facility. Bonnie-Jean would eventually spend over forty years at the same facility where she rose from Charge Nurse to Director of Nursing to the facility’s top Administrator at what is now called EPOCH Senior Healthcare of Melrose. She was able to witness and be a participant in a wide range of changes in the healthcare industry. Bonnie-Jean was still the Administrator at EPOCH when she died.

Bonnie-Jean credited the support of her husband John “Garf” McLean, with whom she was married to for 45 years, and her family for her successful career. She and Garf had one son, also named John. She also leaves behind a beloved grandson, John III and a brother, Frederick. Her friends and family have asked that the recipients who receive this scholarship do so in order to study nursing.