Johanne Elsa Gambrill

Johanne Nielsen Gambrill (January 19, 1938 - January 19, 2026)

Johanne Nielsen Gambrill, mother, math teacher, civil rights activist, craftswoman, photographer, and great admirer of nature’s beauty, died on January 19, 2026, in Ayer, Massachusetts. It was her 88th birthday and Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.

“Walk with purpose” were the words Johanne lived by and the words of wisdom she imparted to her four daughters. From a young age, she was inspired to see the world and contribute to building community, understanding, and friendship across it. Johanne came to understand how one person had the power to foster better understanding between people from different countries, even those who had been enemies in the past. She devoted herself to developing and applying this power herself for the rest of her life.

Johanne loved the Fibonacci sequence and fractals, which could be observed in nature. If you met her, she would tell you how the distribution of seeds in a raspberry reflect the Fibonacci sequence as do the branching patterns in trees and leaves. She would make sure you knew that trees, ferns, snowflakes, and broccoli florets all exhibit a fractal pattern – the complex, infinitely repeating pattern that looks similar at any scale. She also loved pi, celebrating National Pi Day in her classroom every year starting in the 1980s by bringing her students homemade apple pies.

Johanne’s love of math and her wonder at the beauty of nature were intertwined. On walks, she would stop to point out the changing colors of leaves in the fall, the Maine ocean, or a vibrant sunset. Johanne instilled in her daughters an appreciation of the everyday beauty they were surrounded by and the importance of taking note of it. Her daughters now do the same with Johanne’s grandchildren.

Johanne Elsa Nielsen was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on January 19, 1938, to Mary Elizabeth (Abrams) Nielsen, a nurse, and Max Peter Carl Nielsen, Banquets Manager at the Hotel Dupont. Max Nielsen was recognized as one of two men who made significant contributions to the Banquet Department of the Hotel du Pont in The Hotel du Pont Story 1911-1981 for his long-time service in various roles, as waiter and maître d’hôtel for 20+ years.

Johanne graduated from Mount Pleasant High School in 1956 and Bucknell University in 1960. She was a straight-A math student in high school, a mathematics major in college, and a devoted math teacher.

In high school, Johanne was awarded the only American Field Service (AFS) scholarship in Delaware to be an exchange student in Norway. She developed a lifelong friendship with her Norwegian host sister Irene, and remained friends with Peter, the German AFS student at her high school, throughout his life.

After college in 1961, Johanne served as a volunteer for Operation Crossroads Africa, a precursor to the Peace Corps, which placed her and other like-minded young Americans in a village outside Dakar, Senegal, to help build a school for children there.

During her years at home raising her daughters, Johanne focused on volunteer work for AFS and created AFS programs at her children’s various schools in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, supporting scores of AFS exchange students from both the United States and around the world, including Vaidehi, a student from Sri Lanka, whom she hosted 1980-81 and corresponded with for many years.

Johanne mastered many handicrafts and created beautiful lasting works that adorned her home. Her lifelong passion was photography. She also learned silversmithing, weaving, crewel embroidery, needlepoint, and quilting. Having grown up making her own clothes, Johanne made all the costumes for the drama productions at the Elisabeth Morrow School in the early 1980s, including “The Sound of Music” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” She created gorgeous, precisely worked mittens and sweaters for her daughters every winter, and her hand-knit Christmas stockings still adorn her daughters’ fireplaces.

Johanne enjoyed a long career teaching math. She began at the Calhoun School in New York City and eventually taught nearly every level of math at the Dwight-Englewood School in New Jersey, where all of her daughters graduated. While she taught, Johanne took courses at night at Columbia Teachers College in New York City, earning her master’s degree in math education in 2000 at age 62. She finished her teaching career at the Sacred Heart School in Greenwich, Connecticut, retiring in 2008. There, Johanne planned an annual Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration, relishing the opportunity to share the history of the civil rights movement with the student body.

Throughout her adult life, Johanne spent her summers in Ogunquit, Maine. She loved the beach, body surfing in the ocean, lobster, and walking along the Marginal Way. She also really loved swimming and relaxing at the Tenakill pool.

Johanne Gambrill is survived by her four daughters Sara, Becky, Anne, and Amy, and sons-in-law and thirteen grandchildren, and her sister and brother-in-law Susan and George Morrison and their three children and six grandchildren. She is also survived by many cousins in Denmark. She leaves a wonderful legacy of thousands of math students who believed in themselves because she believed in them.

Interment will take place on March 14, 2026, at Greenlawn Cemetery in Nahant, Massachusetts. Johanne’s memorial service will take place in Ogunquit, Maine this summer.

Arrangements are under the care of Badger Funeral Home, A Life Celebration Home, 45 School St., Groton, MA 01450. 978-486-3709