PITTSFIELD — Colleen Quinn didn’t miss Pittsfield High School baseball games — or any other PHS athletic contest, performance or event for that matter.

The longtime art teacher was unfailingly present with her camera, supporting her students, PHS Principal Lynn Taylor said. “No matter the occasion or event, she showed up wholeheartedly for PHS and for the people she loved.”

Quinn died Wednesday morning following a brief battle with an aggressive form of cancer, her brother and sister Jack and Kathy said. She was 69.

On Wednesday afternoon, hours after learning of her passing, the PHS community showed up for Quinn at Clapp Park for the Generals’ Western Mass. tournament game against Frontier Regional High School.

Pittsfield High School baseball players paid tribute to their late teacher, Colleen Quinn, by wearing her name on their uniforms on Wednesday.

The Generals paid tribute by taping her name to the backs of their jerseys before the game. A chair was set up for her behind home plate, with a personalized “Miss Quinn” jacket and a sign that read, “You will forever have the best seat at the game.” Students and PHS players decorated the chair with flowers before the game began.

A chair was set up for Pittsfield High School art teacher Colleen Quinn at the Generals' game against Frontier Regional. Quinn died Wednesday after a short battle with an aggressive form of cancer.

And when PHS Coach Drew Pearce grabbed a microphone and asked anyone whose life had been impacted by Colleen to stand along the first base line, a crowd of all ages joined the team — a line stretching from home plate well into right field — for a moment of silence.

Pittsfield High School students stood on the first base line in tribute to late PHS teacher Colleen Quinn on Wednesday before the Generals' Western Mass. tournament game against Frontier Regional.

Pittsfield High teacher Michael Sheehan called Quinn “an absolute light of a human being” who made everyone feel like part of her family.

“Her smile, her kindness and her immense artistic talents radiated every single day and she shared all of that goodness and pure love with the children of Pittsfield,” he said. “Our world needs more Colleen Quinns, and right now it’s hard to imagine Pittsfield High without the one we had.”

Kathy, her older sister, said she heard it over and over from students: "Ms. Quinn made me believe in myself.”

But the school community still faces the sudden loss of a beloved educator. School leaders said they stand ready to help PHS students through difficult times.

In a message announcing Quinn’s death, Taylor said counselors and support staff will be available for students “who need an extra layer of comfort, a safe space to talk, or help process this loss.”

“Please know that your child does not have to navigate this alone. Our school community is here to wrap its arms around our students,” Taylor said.

The district advised families that children process grief in different ways, affecting behavior, mood or sleep patterns, and that it might also evoke feelings from past losses and hard times. “We encourage you to talk openly but gently with your child about this news, allowing them to express whatever they are feeling,” Taylor told families.

Over the past few days as Quinn’s passing neared, students and staff cared for each other “in the same caring and compassionate way that Ms. Quinn always did,” Taylor said. “The outpouring of love and support throughout our school community would have made her incredibly proud.”

“She was an incredibly talented artist, resident photographer, the master coordinator of school pep rallies, a tireless supporter of our athletes, and someone who devoted countless hours to attending plays, concerts, award ceremonies and any other school related event,” Taylor said.

Quinn's sudden decline and death came as a shock to the school community and family and friends who knew her well — and knew she was famously proud of her perfect attendance record, as a student and as a teacher.

She fell ill about a month ago when, while out for a 5-mile run, she didn’t feel right and brought herself to the emergency department at Berkshire Medical Center.

“Every doctor that came in to see her said, 'So this is you, and this is your tests, and they don’t match,” Kathy said.

"She was always taking care of everybody else," Jack said. "She talked about how her No. 1 goal was taking care of my mom every single day so the rest of us never had to worry about it."

After graduating from St. Joseph's in 1975, Quinn worked for the former Adams Super Market in Pittsfield, making the move from the "old" store on West Street (now Miller Art Supply) to the new store — the current Big Y World Class Market. That was her, at the customer service booth.

She later worked at Lenox 218 Restaurant before her mother, who herself started teaching later in life, encouraged her to give the classroom a try.

Teaching art was a natural choice, as Quinn was a talented painter and photographer who learned from St. Joseph's teachers Dale Zola and Mark Porrovecchio. She earned an associate degree at Berkshire Community College in 1999, a bachelor's at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2001, and master's degrees from the University at Albany in 2023 and 2025, Jack said.

Teaching art allowed Quinn to reach students who might have otherwise slipped through the cracks, her siblings said.

"She would take really a lot of kids that might have been a little disenfranchised with the education system and give them confidence, positivity and caring," Jack said. "It makes a huge difference in a kid's life."

"She'd get kids sitting in her classroom that couldn't speak English, but art is the language of everyone," Kathy added. "The paintings she’d get out of the kids were amazing."

Pittsfield High School baseball players left flowers Wednesday on a chair set aside for their late art teacher, Colleen Quinn.

As a coach, Pearce had seen the impact Quinn had made on his players, as a teacher, mentor and loyal fan. He said his players wanted to pay her tribute.

"[The players] wanted to show the love to her, just a small tribute, and the rest of it will be how they approach the game and how they approach life moving forward," he said.

Generals pitcher Simon Mele, who struck out 13 as PHS won 5-0, said getting the news from Pearce on Wednesday morning was "devastating" and had him tearing up during the day.

But when Mele and the Generals saw their peers gathered to honor their teacher and cheer them on, that was all they needed.

"To come out here and see all these people, this huge student support, all for her, shows how big a part of our community she was and how much she meant to all of us," Mele said. "I don't need more motivation than that. I wanted to go out there today and dominate."

"Today was for her," he said. "And every game from here on will be for her."

Eagle sports editor Michael Walsh contributed to this story.