Jean Kennett, an early and active member of the NCACC, passed away on December 30, 2023, at age 93. While Jean’s professional career began on a traditional path for women at the time, she be-came a trail blazer as the first female Clerk of the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”), established in 1692.

After graduating from the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School, Jean embarked on what she expected would be a long secretarial career. She was employed by a bank, an architectural firm, and an electronics company. After receiving word that her last employer was in the throes of a buyout, she decided to find a different job. Her alma matter scheduled her for eight interviews in one day, the last of which was to become secretary to the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, Paul Reardon. He immediately hired her. When Reardon was elevated to the SJC in 1962, Jean joined him there.

Inside the SJC, Jean rose through the ranks from secretary to third assistant clerk and then second assistant clerk. When the first assistant clerk position was vacated, Jean felt she was the logical choice for the position, but she knew the court wanted a lawyer in the position. Despite having no undergraduate degree, the then 47-year-old was admitted to Suffolk University Law School, which she would attend during evenings for four years, after working daytime at the court.

While Jean recalled some months in law school “were the most miserable of my life,” she also recognized that attending law school “was the most wonderful thing I ever did for myself.” While in law school, Jean was appointed first assistant clerk. She was the first woman the Justices appointed in the role, and also the first nonlawyer they had appointed to the position. Jean became a member of the bar in 1981. A few years later, the Justices appointed Jean as Clerk of the SJC for the Commonwealth, again the first woman to hold that position.

Jean noted that during her tenure at the SJC, she observed a growth in the number of women law-yers appearing before the court, attorneys wearing more bright colors to arguments, the recogni-tion of environmental law as a subject, the development of discrimination law and LGBTQ rights, and an increase in self-represented parties from the family courts. After 35 years with the SJC and 15 years as Clerk, Jean retired in 1999.

Membership in the NCACC was a large part of her professional life. Jean joined the NCACC as an early member, with the Clerk of the SJC for Suffolk County, John Powers, who the NCACC recognizes as one of its founding members, and her boss, Patrick Hurley, Clerk of the SJC for the Commonwealth. Jean was instrumental in planning the NCACC’s 9th annual conference in Bos-ton in 1982. She later served as an Executive Committee member and as member of multiple committees and was president in 1985-86. The NCACC awarded Jean with the J.O. Sentell Award in 1987.