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Obituaries » MAUREEN V. LIPPINCOTT
LIPPINCOTT, MAUREEN V. O’BRIEN, 93, died peacefully in her sleep on January 11. Maureen was born on Sept. 3, 1920, the second child of the late Superior Court Justice and Mrs. Daniel D. O’Brien, of Northampton, Mass. She graduated from Northampton School for Girls in 1938 and Smith College in 1942. Maureen married Clifford E. Lippincott, of Lee, Mass., on Jan. 27, 1944, at Camp Lockhart in California, immediately prior to his deployment on war duty in Europe. She accompanied him on several of his military postings around the world, including Japan and Hawaii. The family lived in Northfield from 1963 until 1984, during which time both Maureen and Cliff were employed at Norwich University. Maureen was the first woman graduate student to enroll at Norwich University and was awarded a Master of Arts teaching degree in 1971. She began teaching English at Norwich part time, during the period in which Norwich was merging with Vermont College in Montpelier. In 1975, she was appointed as the first woman dean of students at the university and in 1977 was promoted to executive assistant to the president. In 1980, she accepted the position of vice president of Vermont College and oversaw the transfer of four nontraditional programs from Goddard College to the Vermont College campus, forming the basis of the Division of Alternative Education and Graduate Studies. This development allowed the students to matriculate smoothly between the core two-year program and four-year and graduate studies. Following the celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of Vermont College and receipt of the distinguished Board of Fellows Medallion Award, Maureen retired in June 1984. She and Cliff spent a year living in Rome and then settled in Pelham, Mass. In addition to her academic career, Maureen was a talented painter. Her work has been displayed in group and one-woman shows throughout the country. She founded the annual exhibit of Vermont artists at Norwich in 1963. She was also a practiced poet and essayist and attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Middlebury on several occasions. Their retirement years included numerous visits abroad, including a six-month stay in Rome and trips to England, Ireland, Scotland and France. She is survived by her sister, Aileen O’Donnell, of Amherst, Mass.; two children, John Lippincott, of Bellows Falls, and Kristen Lippincott and husband, Gordon S. Barrass, CMG, of London, England; and two grandchildren.
