Article Title: Prison Reform Advocate Judith Harden Dies at 84 Judith Ann Harden, a longtime Vermont educator and prison reform advocate who touched lives from Calais classrooms to correctional facilities across the country, died peacefully January 24 in Burlington. She was 84.
Harden succumbed to complications from Alzheimer’s disease after what family described as a slow decline, ending a life devoted to psychology, education and social justice that spanned from Alabama to California to the Green Mountains.
Born October 10, 1941, in Mobile, Alabama, to Virgil “Pete” Harden and Pearl (Gill) Harden, she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Duke University before pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Chicago. There she met Richard “Dick” Jenney, whom she married in 1969.
The couple spent nearly two decades in the Los Angeles area, where Dick joined the early faculty at California Institute of the Arts and Harden taught psychology and women’s studies. But Vermont called in 1989 when Goddard College in Plainfield offered Harden a teaching position.
They settled in Calais, where Harden described their rural existence as “simpler, less lonely, much richer” than their California years. The move marked the beginning of deep community involvement that would define her later decades.
Harden’s academic background in psychology informed her most passionate work: prison reform and correspondence with incarcerated individuals. She maintained regular contact with several inmates, including one man named Teddy who credited her with transforming his life and encouraging his pursuit of higher education behind bars.
Beyond her social justice work, Harden embraced Vermont’s outdoor culture with enthusiasm. She ran, swam, cross-country skied, hiked and kayaked, spending summers at South China, Maine, with her husband’s extended family. Music became another late-in-life passion when she took up the cello, playing with fellow students despite her own assessment that she “wasn’t very good.”
Her spiritual journey led through Zen retreats in California and New York before finding community at Shao Shan Temple in East Calais, where she formed lasting connections. Creative expression flowed through knitting and quilting, including a panel she contributed to the AIDS Memorial Quilt honoring a deceased friend.
A profound personal milestone came in 2012 when Harden reconnected with the son she had placed for adoption in 1964. Their immediate connection, built on shared loves of music, dogs and sarcasm, sustained through weekly phone calls and regular visits until her death.
Harden’s blended family reflected the expansiveness that marked her approach to relationships. After growing up as an only child with limited family connections and losing her mother to cancer early, she embraced Dick’s three children from his previous marriage and his extended family network.
Survivors include her reconnected son; stepdaughter Karen Jenney Gaukel and her husband Ron Gaukel; stepson David Jenney; stepson Tom Jenney and his wife Helen; stepgrandchildren Allison Jenney and Nicholas Jenney; Garrett Galstaun and step-great-grandchild Wyatt Galstaun; siblings-in-law Betsey Jenney Basch and Martin Basch, Peter B. Jenney and Michelle Jenney; beloved niece Becky; and several other nieces and nephews.
A green burial ceremony for close friends is planned at Robinson Cemetery in Calais, with a larger celebration anticipated this spring. The family requests donations to Shao Shan Temple in East Calais or the Alzheimer’s Association in lieu of flowers.
