Kivett, Vickye J. (Erzen) 68, of Wellesley passed away on Monday June 27th at the Beaumont nursing home in Natick after battling the late stages of Parkinson’s disease for nearly a year. She leaves her husband of 48 years, Earl, and her four children: Stephanie Ohnegian and her husband Scott and their children, Emma, Donald and Charlotte of Glen Rock NJ; Jason Kivett and his wife Nikola and their son Hendrik of Houston; Gavin Kivett and his wife Marissa and their son Tuckerman of Wayland; and Meredith Kivett of Boston.
Vickye grew up in Bethalto, Illinois, and attended Civic Memorial High School, where among other things she was president of the student council and editor of the school newspaper, the Eaglet. She interrupted college to marry longtime classmate, Earl Kivett, and moved to Princeton NJ where she worked in Firestone Library for economics professor and future president of Princeton University, William Bowen. Later, as a resident of NJ, she graduated magna cum laude from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
In 1977 Vickye and Earl moved to the Boston area where he attended business school, and they served as house parents at the Dana Hall School in Wellesley where she also taught English. In Wellesley Vickye became active in her children’s schools. She was PTO president at Hunnewell School and became head of the PTO presidents’ council. Later she became president of the Wellesley Education Foundation and founded the Bradford Society as a funding source for WEF.
She was always active at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Wellesley, first as a Sunday school teacher and then as head of the Service League, where for two years she co-led the annual Bargain Haul fundraiser. In recent years, she’d been active with and thoroughly enjoyed the knitters group. Also, until she became too ill to participate, Vickye looked forward to her morning workouts with Bitsy Graham’s aerobics group. She loved the music and the movement!
Vickye also loved to travel. Every other summer she and the family would trek to the Rocky Mountain area for adventure. In alternating years she enjoyed seeing Europe. In 2011 she and Earl visited China for two weeks and spent one week in South Korea with Meri who was there on a Fulbright scholarship. Vickye enjoyed business travel with Earl, and together they saw the whole country and nearly the whole world. We’ll miss her.
Visitation will be held Thursday, June 30, 2-4pm and 6-8pm at George F. Doherty & Sons Funeral Home, 477 Washington Street (Rt.16), Wellesley. The funeral on Friday will be private. A Memorial Service will be scheduled at St. Andrew’s in late September. Donations may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 4777, New York NY 101163 (www.michaeljfox.org) or to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 79 Denton Road, Wellesley MA 02482.