Joyce A. Shortt

Joyce Shortt was raised in Detroit, Michigan, where she was a teenager during the Motown years and went to the performing arts high school, known as Cass Tech. She attended college at the University of Michigan in the height of the 60s anti-war movement and civil rights activism. She was passionately committed to these causes. She met her husband Richard there, who was a boarder at the Osterweil Co-op House where she lived, as well as many dear lifelong friends. The co-op experience would remain central to the Shortt family throughout her life. 

She and Richard married and moved to Amherst, Massachusetts. Their daughter Ellen was born during this time and Joyce developed a strong affinity for New England while there.  

After moving to Co-op City in the Bronx, NY, where daughter Sara was born, Joyce organized with other parents to start a nursery school and became its President. It was during this time that Joyce realized the critical importance of daycare to working families and growing children. 

The family moved back to Western Massachusetts three years later. This was a very meaningful and important time for Joyce. She spent 12 years there raising her children, continuing her activism and building a deep community with an "extended family" that she would stay connected to for her lifetime. She earned her Masters Degree in Child Development from the University of Massachusetts, she served on the board and as the Director of a co-op daycare center in Orange, MA, and started her career as a childcare and children’s advocate, by working for Head Start as a Parent Coordinator. She remained active in causes including the anti nuclear power movement, organizing for peace and working towards women’s rights and advancing feminist causes.

The family moved to Burlington, Vermont in 1984, in part so she could work to further her interest in children's well being and education which were powerful values for her. She served as the first Director of the city’s Childcare Resource and Referral Center and made many gains in strengthening services and changing policies that support working mothers. She also parented, gardened, prepared memorable vegetarian dishes and remained engaged in community work.  

Joyce and Richard moved back to Massachusetts in 1990 (this time in the Boston area), where she became knee deep in building community, advocating for social change, looking out for and caring for the youth, and baking treats, gardening and practicing yoga. While living in Somerville for 33 years, she worked for the Massachusetts Office for Children, Directed the Unitarian Universalists Service Committee’s (UUSC) "Promise the Children” campaign and served as the a Co-Director of the National Institute of Out of School Time at the Wellesley College Centers for Women for 10 years until retiring in 2006.

Joyce was a fierce advocate for children, a huge believer in peace (in all its meanings and forms) a champion for justice, a wise and calm mother to many- not just her biological children- and she genuinely worried for and fought for the well being of all on this planet. 

In her later years, Joyce enjoyed her times at her beach home in Manzanita, Oregon and immersed herself in yoga and veganism, poetry and knitting. She loved long walks in beautiful natural settings, fed her dog Milo salad every evening, and was a devoted and loving friend to many. 

Joyce was a tough cookie and didn’t “take much guff”, had an understated, but sharp wit, and very clear values and principles that she was never afraid to share.  She always showed solid warmth, empathy and support to others and valued and worked towards building and strengthening community. She never left the causes she believed in behind as she worked for peace, justice and children until her illness made it no longer possible.  

She gave her time in Somerville as a Board Member of the Elizabeth Peabody House, served as an officer of Our Revolution Somerville, as Co-Coordinator of the Somerville “Payment in Lieu of Taxes initiative (aimed at community accountability for Tufts University) and knocked on doors for many local progressive political candidates in every election cycle.  

Joyce died after living many years with Alzheimer’s Disease//Dementia. She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Richard Shortt,  her brother, Larry Zuger (Sherri Sipes), her daughters, Ellen Shortt Sanchez (Octavio Sanchez) and Sara Shortt, grandchildren Ariela Shortt Sanchez, Maritza Sanchez, and Martin Sanchez (Rebecca Reese) and Great Grandchildren Nakohyah Sanchez Ware and Ximena Sanchez, and also by her beloved dog, Milo and her many loving friends who were so very important to her. She is preceded in death by her brother Robert Zuger and parents Clarice and Seymour Zuger.

She is buried at the Greenfield Hebrew Congregational Cemetery in Franklin County in Western Massachusetts, which was always in her heart as a profoundly influential and remarkable community. She will also be close to her many dear friends living nearby at Swallow Rise Farm in Wendell and the town of New Salem where she and family lived for 12 years.

A memorial service is planned for Sunday, May 24th in Somerville, MA. 

Contributions may be made in Joyce’s name to Our Revolution Somerville, the Children’s Defense Fund, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Somerville Homeless Coalition, Rosie’s Place and the Alzheimer’s Association. 

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