Moira Breen

Moira E. Breen

 

Moira Breen passed away peacefully on August 6, 2026, at the end of a four-year battle with ALS. She had just turned 61, far too young, and, cruelly, at nearly the same age as her own mother when she left this world.

 

Moira grew up moving. As the daughter of an Air Force colonel, her family lived in Bangkok, Lubbock, Plattsburgh, and near other bases, settling in Vienna and Dunn Loring, Virginia, during her high school years. While she was in college, the family was stationed in Paris and while she didn’t live there full time, she fell in love with the city during her visits.

 

She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and later her master’s in architecture from the University of Maryland. In between, she worked as a paralegal and then at Polshek Architects in New York City, where she woke before dawn most mornings to ride with a cycling club across the George Washington Bridge to Nyack and back to the city in time for work.

 

After graduate school, Moira went to work for Perfido Weiskopf and later Radelet McCarthy in Pittsburgh, a city she loved but never lived in again. In 1997, she moved to the Boston area to join Sasaki Associates, where she worked on educational buildings at the University of Cincinnati, Merrimack College, and RPI.

 

In 1999 Moira married Huard Smith, and in 2000 she welcomed her first child, Nick. She had her second, Juliette, in 2002 and finally Ellie in 2005. With three children to raise, Moira shifted her architecture career from institutional work toward more flexible residential renovation, first with Thebaud LLC, then on her own, and for many years with Maynard Design + Architects with her long-time collaborators, Nick and Libby Maynard. Along the way, she held a marketing role at Payette in Boston. What she loved most about the work was seeing her clients, many of whom were good friends, rediscover meaning and joy in their home after a thoughtful redesign.

 

Moira’s first love was her three children, and she was always involved in some way. She scored swim meets and ran pancake breakfasts for the elementary school swim clubs, managed field scheduling for boys' and girls' lacrosse for years, and later worked at Wayland Middle School and taught in the Wayland High School maker space, where she introduced students to the NuVu design process.

 

Her children inherited her love of learning, compassion, and love of sport and movement. Nick (2000) capped two state championship seasons in high school soccer and swimming before swimming and playing water polo at Middlebury; he is now headed toward medical school. Juliette (2002) swam for Lafayette in the Division I Patriot League and is also pursuing a career in medicine. Ellie (2005) is a standout goalkeeper in field hockey and also plays lacrosse at Williams. And Moira dearly loved Nick's girlfriend, Eva Kaiden, who is pursuing a career in environmental/sustainability management and was a standout track sprinter at Middlebury.

 

Everyone who knew Moira knows that dogs were a constant in her life. She grew up with German Shepherds, getting a big, gentle male named Rilke of her own. After he passed, she got a female named Sadie in 2004. Later she fell for Australian Shepherds, first Juneau, a blue merle, who joined the family near the end of Sadie's life, and then Rosie, a black tri, who arrived just as the pandemic started. Nearly every day, she walked the 2.5-mile loop through Hamlen Woods behind her home with her dogs. And she took them everywhere: to the town recycling center for dog treats, on vacations, and to Middlebury, Lafayette, and Williams College for visits with her children at school. Newton-Wellesley Hospital even let her Aussies visit her during one of her hospital stays, which meant everything to her.

 

True to form, Moira was always looking for the next thing to do, whether that meant a hike up Mt. Monadnock, getting up early for first tracks at Okemo, or just getting the dogs out the door for a long walk. She leased a horse and rode several times a week for years. For a long time, winters meant ski trips to Vermont, to Okemo, where the kids first learned to ski, and on to Jay Peak, Stowe, and many others. Summers were for the Cape and Islands, from Orleans and Skaket Beach with the little kids, to Wellfleet and the big ocean waves, to Martha's Vineyard and the sunsets at Menemsha. There was always biking on the Cape Cod Rail Trail or the trails in Province Lands park. But nowhere held her heart like Block Island. The family rented a house near Snake Hole Road on the south side for many years. She loved walking along the rugged coastline there and spending time on the beautiful Crescent Beach of the east side of the island (Scotch/Mansion Beach). She and her family searched the many trails for glass floats, never finding one, unfortunately. Mostly, Moira loved to spend time with dear friends from Wayland who summered on the island.

 

In addition to her husband and her three children, Moira leaves behind her father, Joseph Breen, and his wife, Linda Mason; her brother, Joe Breen, and his wife, Cristi, and their children, Valerie and Norah; and her sister, Hillary and her husband Hugh Goulding. Living close to Moira, Hillary unselfishly stepped in as a key member of Moira’s caregiving team, shuttling her to trial appointments, and staying overnight several days every week to provide the round-the-clock care needed in the final year.

 

She wanted everyone to know how grateful she was for the care she received at Mass General’s Healey Center for ALS. She loved her neurologist Dr. Doreen Ho and all the members of the clinic team there. And she loved the people working tirelessly for cures at the ALS Therapy Development Institute.

 

In lieu of flowers, Moira asked that donations of any size be made to Compassionate Care ALS (CCALS) of Falmouth. Moira could not say enough good things about the wonderful people at CCALS. They were there for her and her family every step of the way. Founder/CEO Ron Hoffman came to visit right away and help her see how she could continue to live in her home. His team including speech language pathologists, care coordinators, and especially the DME/equipment specialists ensured we had every supply and every device necessary to make living at home with ALS possible.

 

Compassionate Care ALS (CCALS)

Online donation form:

https://ccals.org/donate/

 

For mail:

Compassionate Care ALS

P.O. Box 1052

West Falmouth, MA 02574