Judith Rose Singler, 79, passed away peacefully on June 1, 2025, surrounded by her family at her home in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, on Dec. 31, 1945, to Howard and Mary Alice Kempe, Judy grew up with her brother Tom and sister Mary Lou in Madison and then later in Southern California. Judy graduated from Holy Names College and earned her master’s in social work at UCLA, where she met her husband, Bob. Together, they moved to Massachusetts, buying a home and building a family and community in Belmont, where they lived for 50 years.
Judy is remembered as a loyal and generous friend to many, always ready to offer an insightful thought or a helping hand. She was a fierce advocate for the people and the issues she cared about. She was a social worker and manager at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. She was active in the Belmont community, serving as Burbank PTA president, Girl Scout leader, Election Day poll worker, and always an informed Town Meeting member for over 30 years.
She was an advocate for social justice initiatives at Our Lady of Mercy and St. Luke’s Catholic churches, and through her work on town committees. She instilled the value of personal responsibility in her family and those around her through her contributions to community education, music, and the arts.
Growing up, the Kempe family were active road trippers, traveling and visiting national parks between California and Wisconsin. Judy continued this tradition with her own family, teaching her children and grandchildren the joy of exploring new places and the natural world. Judy learned to sew as a child and was a talented seamstress, hemming her mother’s contra dance dresses and later sewing everything from Halloween costumes to stuffed toys and decorations. After retirement, she enjoyed traveling and spending time with her daughters and their families, as well as friends and family across the country.
Judy was always reading and learning and took up the fiddle (not the violin, she would tell you). In her last few years, her love of birds grew, and she relished hearing the owls in the woods behind her house.
She is survived by her husband of 55 years, Robert; children, Jennifer, Amy, and Michelle; grandchildren, Atlas, Acadia, Josie, Cassis, Taikoda, and Tsukiko; brother and sister-in-law, Thomas and Susan Kempe; and many Singler and Kempe nieces and nephews.
Services will be held on Thursday, June 12, 2025, at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church in Easthampton.
Memorial donations may be made in her honor to Birds of Prey Rehabilitation Center (checks only, P.O. Box 26, Conway, MA 01341) and the Easthampton Public Library Capital Campaign ( easthamptonlibraryma.org/ways-to-give/individual-capital-giving/). A celebration of life will be held this summer; details to be shared at a later date.