Clare D. Bernard

Clare Dorothea Bernard, born McMahon, aged 83 years old, passed away on February 6, 2026, at Yale New Haven Hospital St. Raphael Campus. She was the wife of Joseph Frederick Bernard for twenty-eight years. Born on April 4, 1942, in New Haven, Connecticut, she was the daughter of the late Leo Murray McMahon and Helen Fallon.

Mrs. Clare Bernard was raised in New Haven, CT, and attended St. John the Baptist Grammar School on Dixwell Avenue in New Haven, to which she attributed her outstanding training in discipline, respect, ethics, and a philosophical relationship to God. For high school, she attended Sacred Heart Academy, which moved from New Haven to Hamden while she was there. At Sacred Heart Academy, Clare excelled in academics and theatre, tap dancing her way into musicals, and was co-editor of the Yearbook. Clare attended Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, living at home at 258 Bassett Street at the time. Clare had a love of foreign languages in part from the German bakery near the family home and her church Latin, and majored in German at Albertus Magnus. During her college experience from 1960-1964, she enjoyed play-acting at Yale, listening to art lectures, and folk dancing at Hendrie Hall. She received a language award to study German at Yale’s foreign language school and a Fulbright travel grant to visit museums in Hanover, Germany. She received an M.A. in German from Middlebury College and studied teaching at the University of New York at Buffalo and Albany. She was a doctoral fellow in German at both the University of Göttingen in Germany and for three years at Bryn Mawr College.

Clare’s profession as an educator spanned over thirty years, first as a German, English, Latin, and French teacher, and then as a high school Vice Principal, with most of her career being in the Waterbury, Connecticut Public Schools, and finally as a German, Latin, and Spanish teacher in the New Haven area. In addition, for over 30 years, Clare was a beauty consultant for Mary Kay, where she met many wonderful friends.

Clare married her husband Joseph, who was a graduate of Loyola and of the University of Illinois in Chicago, in addition to completing his PhD in history at Yale. After their wedding in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, they had a long honeymoon visiting her brother Leo in Paris, and continuing to Germany and Hungary. Theirs was a happy union producing a beautiful daughter, Megan Marie, whose talent in acting and creative writing, love of dogs and cats, and an active and entrepreneurial spirit were much appreciated. Clare was active in her church, St. Bridget’s, in Cheshire, Connecticut, as a choir member, lector, eucharistic minister, and ChristLife member. She always loved facilitating story telling about life’s anecdotes, and introducing others to short story writers like her favorite, Flannery O’Connor. Clare traveled at all opportunities, to Europe, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, the Holy Land, and Mexico, to name a few of her favorite places.

Clare is survived by her daughter Megan Marie Bernard, of New York City; her nephew Norbert Hootsmans and his wife Alice, of Boston, Massachusetts; her niece Helen Hootsmans and her husband Bob Shea, of Williamsburg, VA; her niece Ann Stiltner and her husband Brian Stiltner, of Hamden, Connecticut; her grandnephews and nieces Norbert Hootsmans Jr. and Sarah Ali, of Nashville, Tennessee; James and Kayla Hootsmans, of Salem, Oregon; Philip Hootsmans and Mariana Prado Anaya, of San Francisco, California; and Brendan Stiltner, of Boston, Massachusetts, and Grace Stiltner of Hamden, Connecticut; and her great grandnephew Jonah James Hootsmans (son of James and Kayla Hootsmans).

Clare was predeceased by her parents, Leo Murray McMahon and Helen Fallon; her husband Joseph Bernard; her older brother Leo Murray McMahon Jr.; her older brother Gerard Anthony McMahon and his wife Joan McMahon; and her older sister Helen Margaret Hootsmans-McMahon and her husband Norbert Hootsmans.

Arrangements – A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Saturday, February 14, 2026, at 10 AM at St. Bridget of Sweden Church, 175 Main Street, in Cheshire. Friends are asked to meet directly at church. Burial will follow in All Saints Cemetery, North Haven. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Legionaries of Christ Novitiate, 475 Oak Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410.