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Mary Jane Blaustein, psychiatric nurse and president of the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation, dies

Mary Jane Blaustein, a former Johns Hopkins psychiatric nurse and president of the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation, died of heart disease Aug. 17 at her Towson home. She was 92.

“She was brilliant, discerning and always thinking about how to create equity and access for people and those with mental and psychiatric health needs. She was attuned to people’s needs and struggles in that area,” said a stepdaughter, Dr. Jeannie Blaustein, of New York City, the current president of the foundation.

“She had a deep interest in under-resourced people like Native Americans and Indigenous people,” Ms. Blaustein said. “Jane lit up the room. She was funny, honest, a straight-shooter and a deeply loving person.”

Mary Jane Helms, daughter of Dr. Samuel T. Helms, medical director of the old Emerson Drug Co., and Selina Clair Walker Helms, a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Wendover Road in Guilford.

A 1951 graduate of Roland Park Country School, she studied nursing at the old MedStar Union Memorial School of Nursing and the Johns Hopkins University.

She was also an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
“Jane was a very smart gal who went well beyond her education,” said Elaine Smith, a retired Hopkins nursing colleague and friend of 50 years.

“She was good at organizing things like what we called the Acute Treatment Clinic at the time. She helped start the Sexual Behavior Consultation Unit which came along at the time of Masters and Johnson,” she said referring to the American sexologists.

“This was at the forefront of developing programs for couples who suffered from sexual dysfunction and the psychiatric elements of transexual surgery,” Ms. Smith said.

Mrs. Blaustein spent 29 years at Hopkins before retiring in the 1990s.

She was a trustee of the Maryland Zoo, Union Memorial Hospital and Boys’ Latin School.

“She was deeply involved with her work at Hopkins working with doctors,” said Rhea Feiken, a Baltimore actress. “Her family and friends always came to Jane for her sage advice and support.”

Her 1954 marriage to Frederick “Sandy” Lucas ended in divorce.

In 1986, she married Morton Katz Blaustein, a Baltimore businessman and civic leader, who was chairman and CEO of American Trading and Production Corp., a real estate development firm.

In 1989, the couple established the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation with Mrs. Blaustein serving as president until 2014, when her stepdaughter took over.

Mr. Blaustein died in 1990.

“She and my father were together for seven years and it was an extraordinary romance. They celebrated the joy they found later in life,” Ms. Blaustein said.

“She was fearless in her ability to face struggles,” Ms. Balustein said. “She had a zest for life but faced her decline with honesty and grace.”

Keeping up with current events, playing bridge and vacationing in Maine were her pastimes.

She was a lifelong communicant of St. David’s Episcopal Church, 4700 Roland Ave., where a memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

In addition to Ms. Blaustein, she is survived by a son, D. Taylor Lucas, of Towson; another stepdaughter, Dr. Susan M. Blaustein, of Chevy Chase; a brother, Samuel T. Helms, of Catonsville; two grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. A daughter, Sandra Lucas Carter, died in 2023.