Sean Martin Noonan

Sean Martin Noonan was born on November 26,1950 in High Gate, London, England and died at home in Worthington on Tuesday, December 15, 2020, due to complications from polycystic kidney disease.   A few months after his birth, Sean and his mother returned to her native Ireland and he was raised in Ennis, County Clare on the west coast of Ireland. Later, he worked in an eye glass factory in Ennis after being trained to do lens grinding in Germany. He realized quickly that an indoor job did not suit him and he began working on different local farms milking cows. At one point, he had over 40 milking goats and made soft cheese which he sold at a local shop.
In 1975, at Vaughn’s Pub in Broadford, County Clare, he asked an American girl to dance, and that was how he met his wife, MaryBeth. Together they ran a small stained glass studio and a market garden where they grew produce to be sold to local restaurants and hotels. In 1985, they moved to Worthington with their baby daughter, Meghan. Sean became a citizen of the United States on September 2,1999.  Sean was renowned as a stone mason. In rock, he found his artistic medium and the walls that stand all over the hill towns and the valley are a testament to his creativity and skill. He continued to do stone work even as the disease ran its course, truly living a full life until the day he died.
Sean loved travel and there is not a place in the world he did not want to experience first hand. He lived for a while in Norway on a mushroom farm and briefly in British Columbia. Winter was not his cup of tea and for almost 30 years, he traveled to Australia for their spring and summer. He continued to do all the things he did so well; he danced, did stonework and developed a network of life long friends or mates, as they are known there, who came to the States to visit him. He loved all kinds of music and dancing, a joy he shared with many people. He met his current partner, Cynthia, on the dance floor on a Friday night for live music at Liston’s in Worthington, Massachusetts.   Every year he grew a fine crop of potatoes, some from seed that was carried back from Ireland. On the weekends, the days were often filled with heated discussions on the  deck with his good mates about economics and politics.
Sean is survived by his partner, Cynthia Jirak, Cummington, ex-wife MaryBeth O’Shea, Worthington, his beloved daughter, Meghan Clare (Noonan) Dewkett, her husband, Jesse Dewkett, and  his granddaughter, Harper Dewkett, from Hinsdale, and a vast array of friends, both local and abroad.    In lieu of flowers, donations can be made by check to either:
The Harvard PKD Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Attn: Jing Zhou, 4 Blackfan Circle, HIM-520, Boston, MA 02115 or by visiting their website pkdcenter.bwh.harvard.edu 
Or Saving Listons Bar gofundme.com or by check to Steve Magargal, PO Box 66, Worthington, MA 01098. To express condolences to the family of Sean, please visit www.westfieldfuneralhome.com for Sean's tribute page.

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