Jane Hillis Thayer died Oct. 11 at her home. She was 86.

Jane was born on June 17, 1930 in New York city to Harold Lee Hillis, originally of Davenport, N.Y., and Ruth E. Caldwell of New York city.

She attended noted progressive school, Horace Mann–Lincoln, from kindergarten through 12th grade. The school was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and associated with Teacher’s College at Columbia University. She graduated from Cornell University in 1952 with a major in psychology.

Jane married Roger Thayer, also a Cornell graduate, in 1951 at the Riverside Church in New York city. They lived in the Washington D.C. area until 1996. Jane got a master’s degree in psychology in 1959 and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1969, both from George Washington University. She interned at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. after having worked summers at a private mental health clinic in Syracuse, N.Y.; she also worked at the Alexandria, Va. Community Mental Health Clinic and the National Institute of Health in Montgomery County, Md. She co-founded the Washington Gestalt Institute and consulted for many psychological groups in that area.

She operated a highly respected private clinical psychotherapy practice in Washington from 1959 to 1999, and on Martha’s Vineyard from 2001 to 2014.

Jane was a member of many Professional and Honorary Societies, and was included in Who’s Who of American Women since the 1980s. She published and presented papers in professional journals, and co-authored a book, “Elderescence...” with her daughter Peggy in 2005. Her psychotherapy training was with many noted professionals, including Sheldon Kopp, Fred Klein, and Joe Slavin.

Jane co-founded a unique, and maybe one of the first, interracial community groups in Montgomery County, Md. in 1959; it was made up of members of the Unitarian Church of Silver Spring, Md. and Plymouth Congregational Church of Northwest Washington, D.C. It met monthly in member’s homes, where they socialized and discussed issues of the day. The group continued for nearly 40 years until after Jane moved to Martha’s Vineyard.

She was active in and past president of the Martha’s Vineyard Mediation Program, Martha’s Vineyard Unitarian-Universalist Society, Massachusetts Conflict Resolution Organizations, and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) of Washington, D.C., Boston, and Martha’s Vineyard.

She was also an avid reader of psychological, medical, and political books. Her recent interest was in peace and justice for all humans; she was the chairperson for the Martha’s Vineyard Unitarian Peace Social Action Committee and conceived of and worked to have Holly Near, a peace singer from California, present a concert at The Old Whaling Church in Edgartown in the summer of 2012.

Jane was predeceased by her brother, Rev. Walter Hillis, in 2004, and her oldest daughter, Peggy, in 2010. She is survived by her husband Roger of Sengekontacket in Oak Bluffs; Peggy’s wife Sandy, formerly of Island Grove, now of Salem, Conn.; her David Roger, a physics professor at the University of Wyoming at Laramie, and his partner Diane Witteveld, of Ft. Collins, Colo,; her daughter Cyndy Jane, a legal assistant for the U.S. Department of Justice Regional Office in Cleveland, Ohio, and her partner, Evelyn Mathis; and Jane’s grandson, David Roger the 2nd and his wife Julie Gundrum of Los Angeles, Calif.

A celebration of Jane’s life will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard Chapel later in the year. She wanted music by Joan Baez and Holly Near.

Donations may be made to Hope Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard, The Alzheimer’s Association, and Compassion & Choices.