Jean Dungan Van Buskirk, who led the sister cities program and traveled internationally as Baltimore and Maryland’s ambassador, died of dementia complications Jan. 10 at Blakehurst Senior Living. The longtime Roland Park resident was 95.
Born and raised in Troy, Ohio, she was the daughter of Cameron Dungan, an attorney, and his wife, Ruth Dungan. She earned a degree at Denison University and became a buyer at Halle Brothers department store in Cleveland.
She met her future husband, George Van Buskirk through mutual friends in Cleveland. They married in 1957.
She moved to Baltimore in 1964 and chaired the committee that established the Voluntary Action Center of Central Maryland.
In a 1975 Baltimore Sun article, she said of her volunteers, “They are interested in everything from answering hotlines, to counseling young people to working in nursing homes.”
She also joined a committee for promoting volunteerism in city schools and sat on the boards of the United Way, YMCA, Planned Parenthood of Maryland and the Junior League of Baltimore. She led the Mayor’s Professional Women’s Advisory Group.
Her daughter, Margot Van Buskirk Hoerner, said “My mother lived on Ridgewood Road in Roland Park for 48 years and cherished the close-knit spirit of the neighborhood. She helped foster traditions including Fourth of July parades, ice cream-making parties, and holiday caroling, and even launched a neighborhood food co-op out of a neighbor’s garage.”
In 1982 then Mayor William Donald Schaefer appointed her director of the Baltimore Sister Cities Program. She became a global matchmaker with places such as Kawasaki, Japan, Piraeus, Greece, Rtterdam, Netherlands and Xiamen in China. She worked with many volunteers in the program that fostered exchanges in business, culture, education, sports, medicine, and the arts.
She also earned eleven Sister Cities International awards and was twice named to top honors in the U.S.
When Schaefer was elected governor, he asked her to run the sister cities program for the state.
“My mother’s curiosity …extended to the world beyond Baltimore,” said her daughter. “She collected souvenirs along the way and then shared them with her children and grandchildren.”
In 2005 she organized a volunteer group to build a playground at 33rd Street and Ellerslie Avenue as the old Memorial Stadium site was being redeveloped. She estimated that 3,000 persons worked nine days on the initiative at what is now called Stadium Place.
In 2012 Denison University honored her with its Distinguished Alumni Citation.
Survivors include her daughters, Margot Van Buskirk Hoerner, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Barbara Van Buskirk, of Towson; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Her husband, George Van Buskirk, who worked in economic development, died in 2020. A daughter, Laura Jane Van Buskirk died in 1980.
A service of remembrance for Jean and George Van Buskirk will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 21 at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles Street.
