Lynne Marie Wisneski, of Duxbury and Boston, passed away peacefully on the evening of April 12 surrounded by her family at her home in Duxbury.  Born the first child to Marilyn and Walter Briscoe on September 9, 1947 in Weymouth, Massachusetts, she graduated from Weymouth High School in 1965 and received a Bachelors of Education degree from Bridgewater State College in 1969.  She taught the elementary grades for several years in the Hanson and Weymouth school districts, retiring after her children were born in the mid-1970s.  Her passion for the visual arts was initially kindled when she volunteered as a docent at the Duxbury Art Complex in the late 1970s.  Several years thereafter she was nominated and accepted into the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Ladies Committee (now Museum Associates Committee) where she forged many lifelong friendships and developed a sensitive appreciation for the visual arts that very much defined the rest of her life.  She completed the post-baccalaureate program in art history at Wellesley College and until recently was an active volunteer in the MFA’s department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.{sidebar id=1}

At the time of her death, Lynne was an Overseer of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where she had recently been named a Major Benefactor; a Governor of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where she chaired the Medici Scholarship Committee; and a trustee of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she chaired the Friends of Fenway Court Committee.   She was a member of the Visiting Committees of both Art of the Americas and Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the MFA and a longtime patron of the Yale Art Gallery.

Lynne was also an enthusiastic and dedicated patron of the Boston Ballet, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Lyric Opera.  Her earlier career as a teacher gave her a lifelong interest in education with a special concern about the need for student financial support.  In recent years, she provided several annual support stipends for students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and endowed financial need scholarship programs at Yale University, the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New England Conservatory, and Bridgewater State College.  In addition, she endowed an annual teaching award at Boston University.

Lynne leaves her parents, both of Duxbury; her husband of 36 years, Frank; her daughter Corey and her husband Brian Caswell and their daughter Amelia Lynne (due in late June) of Duxbury; her daughter Ashley of Boston; a sister Leslie Clarke and her husband Jonathan of Duxbury; her brother Eric Briscoe and his wife Diane of Abington; many nieces and nephews and their children; many aunts, uncles and cousins; and countless loving friends. 

Burial at the Mayflower Cemetery in Duxbury will be private.  An open house to celebrate Lynne’s life will be held on Sunday, May 18, 2008 from 3:00 to 6:00 at her home at 200 Powder Point Avenue, Duxbury.   In lieu of flowers, donations in memoriam may be directed to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum at 280 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115 or The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at 230 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115.{sidebar id=6}