WAYLAND: Leah Lipton, formerly a long term resident of Wayland and a summer resident of Nantucket, passes away in Duxbury on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 after years of Alzheimer’s Disease. She was 87 years old.
Ms. Lipton, born in Kearny, NJ earned a B.A. from Douglas College, then the women’s college of Rutgers University. She then earned an M.F.A. from Radcliffe College.
Ms. Lipton and her husband Herbert Lipton raised their family in Wayland. She was an active member of the community, participating for years in the League of Women Voter’s, and was twice elected to the Wayland Planning Board. During her term as Chairperson of the Board, Wayland adopted key regulations to protect the watershed of the Sudbury River.
After her children were grown, Lee began a new career as a Professor of Art History at Framingham State College (later University) where she was eventually tenured and served as Chairperson of the Department. Her lectures of the history of art, from the ancients to Buddhist art to Picasso were hugely popular and many of her students went on to academic pursuits. While at Framingham, she and colleagues successfully filed a grievance against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to remedy the practice of lower pay for female that male professors. During her time as a professor, she helped found the Danforth Museum, an art museum in Framingham which has become part of the cultural fabric of that community, where she served on the Board of Trustees for many years, acted as Director and Curator.
In the 1980’s, Ms. Lipton, pursuing her interest in U.S. portrait painters, embarked on a new endeavor curating exhibits of portraits. Her first exhibit and book entitled “A Truthful Likeness”, presented the work of forgotten early 19thy century portraitist Chester Harding, who painted famous Americans of the time from Daniel Webster to Daniel Boone. The exhibit showed at the U.S. Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. in 1985. She later curated an exhibition of the work of 20th century painter Charles Hopkinson of Manchester, Massachusetts.
Lee was an ardent and talented, if stage shy, classical pianist, who practiced Chopin, Mozart, Brahms and Schumann almost every day, but never performed.
Lee Lipton, born Leah Shneyer, married Herbert Lipton in 1951. Herb, a psychologist and an active member of Wayland’s political community, passed away in 1979. She is survived by her three children; David of Washington, D.C., Ivan of Bourne and Rachel of Boston, and five grandchildren, Anna Rose, Sasha, Isabelle, Gabriel and Eva.
A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 2:00 pm at the First Parish in Wayland, 50 Cochituate Rd (Wayland Center), Wayland.
In lieu of flowers, her family suggests the memorial contributions may be sent to the Alzheimer’s Assoc. of MA/NH, 480 Pleasant St, Watertown, MA 02472.