Diana "Yan" Hunt Thomas, of Bedford, Massachusetts, passed away peacefully on February 3, 2025, after a long illness. Diana was born in Boston in 1933 to Charles Raymond Hunt and Barbara Dean Hunt. The family lived in Cohasset, Hingham and Marblehead, Massachusetts and spent time at the Forest House in Tilton, NH.

Diana graduated from St. Timothy's School in Maryland 1951 and Smith College in Northampton, MA in 1956 with a degree in government. She completed a Master's degree in social work at Simmons College and worked for Massachusetts Mental Health for three years while living in Cambridge.

Born to a prominent sailing family, Diana spent much of her life aboard sailboats. In 1950, Diana was part of the crew that competed in and won the Sears Cup (Junior National Sailing Championship). The Hunt family sailed to the Bahamas aboard Zara, a 51 foot ketch designed by her father. The family spent the year together in Rock Sound, Eleuthera. In 1955 Diana joined her family aboard the Harrier, a 41 foot Concordia sloop in Europe. The six Hunts lived aboard and sailed from Abeking and Rasmussen in Lemberger, Germany where the boat was built to Rotterdam, across the North Sea to England to participate in one of the most prestigious boat races at the time, Cowes Week. The Hunt family swept all six days of competition at Cowes Week. The family sailed on to Copenhagen and to Gothenburg, where Harrier was then shipped to the US. There were many cruises with family and friends; to the Bahamas, the Adriatic back from the Bermuda race, through the Panama Canal among others.

Diana met the man who would become her husband first in 1953 visiting Princeton with a friend. The two were reunited in Massachusetts after Donald Thomas finished his military service in Hawaii with the Marine Corps. They married in 1959 and raised their two children and built a home on Dudley Road in Bedford. Before coming to Bedford, from 1964 to 1966 the couple spent two years in Ayetoro, Nigeria working to start a secondary school. Later in the 2000s Don and Yan worked to establish the American Academy in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Diana, "Yan" worked as a nature science teacher through Lincoln Audubon in third and fourth grade classrooms in Braintree and Waban. The natural world was her great passion. Identifying trees, ferns, birds, following animal tracks through the woods and fields and beaches of Massachusetts made Diana a fascinating, knowledgeable person to walk and talk with.

She was active in Bedford as a member of and eventually chairman of the Conservation Commission. She was instrumental in acquiring property for the community that would become town forests: Minnie Reid, Hartwell Forest and Altman Conservation Area. She helped initiate the trails commission and steward program for the maintenance and protection of the community lands. Yan was a fierce competitor and a tennis champion at the Wedgewood Club. She loved fishing, gardening, trying a new recipe, and being amongst her family.

Diana is survived by her husband Donald Wilcox Thomas, her daughter Julia Knapp Thomas Bucklin of Millbrook, NY and son Mark Evans Thomas of Kingston, WA, her brother James Henry Hunt of Westport, MA, Joshua Hunt of Falmouth, MA, her grandchildren Sophia and Owen Bucklin as well as many nieces and nephews. Diana was predeceased by her sister Kate Reynolds Hunt.

A memorial service will be held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 100 Pine Hill Rd., Bedford, on Saturday, May 31, at 12:00 PM.

In lieu of flowers please consider a donation in Diana's name to the Nature Conservancy (The Nature Conservancy: A World Where People & Nature Thrive) , Doctors Without Borders (Home | Doctors Without Borders - USA) or the League of Women Voters ( Home | League of Women Voters)