Jean McGlothlin—artist, world traveler, and lover of documentary film—has died

Oct. 16, 1942 – March 5, 2026

Jean Stark McGlothlin spoke with a voice that was soft, a bit halting and almost a whisper. But she also spoke with a heart and mind that were unfaltering and not always that quiet. Jean’s voice led her through her various personal and professional pursuits and also helped guide the Sebastopol arts community to new heights and accomplishments.

Her voice fell silent on March 5, 2026, when she died from pneumonia and severe respiratory failure. Her passing at Sutter Hospice in Santa Rosa, CA. was attended by a few dozen friends and family members as she gave up her last breaths. She was 83.

Born on Oct. 16, 1942, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to parents John and Joan Stark, McGlothlin lived her early life close to home, while beginning a career in juvenile justice advocacy before relocating west following her first marriage.

Before her college days attending Grinnell College, she had already developed an interest in crafts and worked in a pottery studio while studying the arts.

She arrived in California in 1978 and raised her two daughters, Laura (Johnson) and Nancy (Kissel). She had been recently divorced from her first husband, Ira Keeshin, now deceased.

A few years later, Jean met Michael McGlothlin when their career and work paths crossed while both were living in the East Bay. A brief romance ensued where Michael remembers, “We both chased each other,” and marriage followed in 1987. The couple moved to Piedmont and continued their careers. Michael opened his travel agency, Dirt Cheap Travel. They kept a wooden sailboat and sailed often on the San Francisco Bay.

In 1992, Jean and Michael moved to rural Sebastopol to “get out of the rat race. We loved the quiet and open spaces,” said Michael. After a year’s search, they bought their property just off Burnside Road, where Jean eventually built a crafts and jewelry studio while Michael moved his Dirt Cheap Travel business from San Francisco to Main Street, Sebastopol.

The McGlothins made many new friends through the arts community and the Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise, where Michael is a past president. “Jean was very involved with Rotary and all our projects and fundraisers,” said Michael.

The couple’s photo album is full of scenes of Rotary events and lots of fellow Rotarians and other friends sitting around big tables eating and enjoying wine. Other photo albums offer a tour of the world with many scenes of their frequent foreign travels.

After owning three different wooden sailboats over 25 years, the McGlothlin’s sailing years ended as Jean’s health faltered a bit. She contracted palsy that also ended her jewelry-making career. Before her retirement, Jean had developed a specialty of making custom silver buttons, clasps and closures for individual wardrobe pieces and for the garment industry. Her idle studio is still a treasure trove of her handmade items and talent.

Putting away her jewelry-making tools was not the end of Jean’s involvement and contributions to the arts and local crafting community. With extra time available, she jumped into leadership roles at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, serving on almost every committee over time and also serving several terms on the board of directors.

“Jean and Michael were solid supporters of the Arts Center,” said Linda Galletta, the founder of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. “I am beyond grateful for Jean’s many years of dedicated service and financial support. She was one of the very early supporters of the center.”

Galletta remembers meeting Jean first as a visual artist and jewelry maker. “She was an early participant in our Art at the Source open studio events in 1995 before she moved on to her real passion for film and documentaries as co-director and lead programmer of the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival,” said Galletta. “I still have some of the silver buttons she made, and when I visited her at hospice, she told me to put them on something to wear. We had a good laugh,” said Galletta.

Jean served on the team that created the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival (SDFF ) in 2007. She worked on the festival until her death this year. Co-founders of the film festival included Eliza Hemenway, Teresa Black and Tommie Del Smith. For most of her years with the festival, McGlothlin coordinated the artists’ call for entries and the screening and jury selections.

In 2009, she was joined by Cynthi Stefanoni, and the two women became the “guiding lights” for what has been an 18-year run, with the next festival scheduled for April 9-12 this year.

“We were more than collaborators, Stefanoni said. “We agreed to stay in our own lanes, and then we never did.” Stefanoni said all the leaders and volunteers of SDFF always called Jean their “North Star.”

In a posthumous milestone, much of this year’s lineup of films was influenced by Jean’s recent contributions.

“She was fiery, fierce and loving through it all even as she turned frail in the past weeks,” added Stefanoni. “She always encouraged us to seek out films that engaged in what’s real and that shine a light in the dark places.”

Although Jean and Michael gave up their sailboats, they continued to travel the world and took many ship cruises through Europe, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and other waters. One of their favorite destinations was Napili on the northern tip of Maui. In 2004, the McGlothlins traveled to Brisbane, Australia, for the Rotary International Convention.

Besides her daughters and husband Michael, Jean is also survived by two sisters Lynn Greenwold, of London, England and Virginia Stark, of Eugene, Oregon. Also surviving are two granddaughters, Cleo Johnson and Sabrina Greenstone, of New York.

A Celebration of Life will be held on May 17 at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts with more details to follow.

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