In June 1986, Sally Mack, clasping the hands of her husband and three sons, walked onto the Nevada Test Site to protest the US government’s nuclear weapons testing program.  They and 144 others were arrested for trespassing, for which Sally later spent 5 days in jail. It was a consummate moment in Sally’s life, uniting her two strongest driving forces – love for the people closest to her and a commitment to making the world better for all people.  Later she wrote that in that moment she was able to overcome a paralyzing fear of nuclear war and convert it into courageous action because “sharing the fear and love and conviction of hundreds of wonderful people, and especially my own family, enabled me to do so.” 

Born May 19, 1933, Sally grew up in Oil City, PA, in one of the few Jewish families in her small town.  During WWII, a friend told her, “My mother says if Germany wins we can’t be friends anymore.” Yet by force of heart and mind she overcame her outsider status.  She was elected her high school’s beauty queen, won the Emily Post Good Manners award, and edited the school newspaper.  She then followed her beloved older brother Irving to the University of Michigan. 

In 1955, after graduation, Sally went to the newly created state of Israel as part of a Quaker work camp, working alongside Arabs and Jews and developing a lifelong commitment to bridging their divide.  After getting her masters in social work, she moved to Boston to begin her career, where in 1959 she met Dr. John Mack, whom she married that same year.  They spent the next two years in Japan, then raised three sons in Brookline, MA, where they lived until their separation in 1993.  Dr. Mack went on to become a renowned psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.  After their divorce, Sally moved to Cambridge, living there until 2013, when she moved to Lasell Village in Newton.

Sally was known as an exceptional social worker who combined deep empathy with an incisive analytical mind. Her work focused on the families of young children, addressing difficult issues such as child sexual abuse and families with terminally ill children.  She was the only social worker on the neonatal intensive care unit at Boston’s Children’s Hospital, where she advocated for the rights of parents of premature babies. She became a leader both locally and nationally.  In 1997 she won the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers’ Award for Excellence, the organization’s highest honor.  That same year she co-founded the Schwartz Center at Mass. General Hospital, dedicated to the importance for both patients and caregivers of compassionate healthcare, which subsequently spread to 375 hospitals across the country.

Sally was an extraordinary mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, partner and friend.  Relationships mattered to her above all else, and in return she garnered a profound devotion from everyone who knew her.  She had a way of listening – with full attention and curiosity, with insight but without judgment, and with genuine interest, caring and compassion -- that made people feel heard as never before. Countless younger friends saw her as the mother they wished they’d had.  And for countless younger women friends she was a role model, thanks to her ability to combine a nurturing devotion to family and friends with an accomplished career and a commitment to changing the world, and to do it all with utter humility and authenticity.

Sally died of breast cancer on March 24, 2016.  She leaves behind three sons, Danny, Ken and Tony Mack; four grandchildren, Ari, Cai, Leila and Eric; a devoted partner in her final years, Irving Exter; and innumerable beloved friends and family members.  For information about services and to leave remembrances, go to: forevermissed.com/sally-mack.