About Mattina R. Proctor

BOSTON, Mass. – Mattina R. Proctor, a compassionate philanthropist passed in peace, in her sleep, Sunday morning, Feb. 20, 2005, in her apartment in Boston at the age of 78.

The daughter of John Riker Proctor and Anne Margaret (Hall) Proctor, Tina was born Dec. 13, 1926. in Boston, Mass. She was raised in New Orleans, New York, and Boston, but her home was in Camden, Maine. Attending Oak Grove preparatory school in Vassalborro during the war, she continued her education at the Spence School in New York City, and then went on to attend the Bryant and Stratton Business Institute in Boston, Mass. In addition to her business studies there, she also studied graphology and became an expert in handwriting analysis, and giving personality readings was an avid interest of hers throughout her life.

Ms. Proctor’s life’s work, however, was shaped by growing up during the Great Depression and World War II, and being moved to compassion by the suffering and injustice that was so rife in that time. The early years of volunteerism at the church, in hospitals and reading for the blind led to a life of philanthropy, in which she focused on health, education, and the arts.

Tina loved to travel, preferring the civility of traveling by trains and cruise ship, to the frenetic pace, unceremonious and perfunctory nature of air travel. Opera was another of her favorite passions, and she was a strong supporter of both Joseph Summer, an operatic composer, and the Boston Lyric Opera.

In 1991, she founded the Mattina R. Proctor Foundation, which continues to support medical care and research, the arts and education, and the welfare of those in need. Following in her great-grandfather, Thomas E. Proctor Sr.’s footsteps, who had supported the construction of a new “asylum” at Massachusetts General Hospital almost a century before, she helped establish The Mattina R. Proctor Center for Pediatric Hematology & Oncology there. After the plight of local Maine farm workers was brought to Tina’s attention she started supporting The Maine Rural Workers Coalition, and the installation of tele-medical stations throughout Maine to provide medical care in rural communities.

A very compassionate person, she supported The Pine Street Inn, a homeless shelter in Boston, among many other organizations whose focus was to support those in need. When she became aware of a major epidemic of children with lead poisoning in Maine she helped to fund a program at Maine Medical Center in Portland to support a state wide physician outreach educational program which included a referral and support center with live and Internet-based services, including guidelines for screening and treatment of lead-toxic children. Tina was also a supporter of, and recently funded a new operating room at, the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport. Through her support of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Mass., she fought the disease that took her younger brother, James, in 1942, at the age of 14. After looking into the shortage of available health-care workers in Maine Tina discovered that a greater percentage of graduates coming from the University of New England stayed in the area and so decided to support their efforts to expand the university’s programs. She also donated to numerous other educational institutions including the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine, and The Community School in Camden.

A lifelong a member of the Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Camden, and member of the Altar Guild, Tina loved being a part of the Summer Fair. Using her handwriting analysis she very much enjoyed giving people personality readings and always had a very popular table at this yearly fund raising event for the church.

She was predeceased by her parents and her brother, James.