Karen Jeanne O'Donnell

Karen Jeanne O’Donnell, a long-time Boston-area environment activist, union leader, and former Massachusetts state legislator, died in Cambridge November 20, 2014, after waging a spirited two-year fight against brain cancer. She was 60. A native of Washington D.C, Karen grew up in the tree-lined neighborhood of Cleveland Park and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. She moved to the Boston area to attend Northeastern University, where she graduated in 1977 with a degree in biology. She never left a region that seemed willing to embrace her progressive ideals. Karen was always pushing boundaries. In picking a career, she chose to become a master electrician, a profession long dominated by men. But she was not the type to just be defined by her day job. Over the years, Karen fought hard for a variety of causes, from a long-term effort to clean up the islands of the Boston Harbor to advancing the interests of her electric workers union, Local IBEW 103. As a union activist, Karen has served as delegate to the Greater Boston Labor Council for 10 years, and as member of the National Executive Board of the Coalition of Labor Union Woman. In 1982, she traveled to China with the North American Tradeswomen group. Through the years, her support for worker’s rights took to several countries including Guatemala and Nicaragua. She was also a passionate environmentalist who saw a need as a young woman to clean up the neglected islands of the Boston Harbor. Karen participated in three summer internships on the Boston Harbor Islands. She was a 35 year volunteer with Volunteers and Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands. She served as Chair of the Friends Board from 1995-1999 and again from 2000-2003. Karen was also a member of the Sierra Club and became Chair of the organization’s Greater Boston Group from 2008-2013. She then went on to the Chapter Executive Committee where she served until her death. Not surprisingly, Karen was a true-blue Democrat and was long active in politics in her adopted hometown of Waltham. Starting in 1986, she was a regular delegate at the Democratic State Convention. Karen would achieve political success herself when she was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1992, serving a district that included Waltham and Newton. Karen received a number of awards for her efforts to help others. In January 2013, Karen was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Waltham Democratic City Committee before a large crowd at the Waltham Area Democrats annual "Post-Holiday Gathering, an evening that Karen first organized many years earlier. Two months later, she was honored by the Boston Harbor Islands Advisory Council. Karen is survived by her mother, Jeanne, her sisters, Susan and Jeanne, and her brother, James. Donations in celebration of Karen's remarkable life can be made to Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands, Karen O'Donnell Memorial Fund, 30 Shipyard Drive, #202, Hingham, MA 02043.