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Beverly Bea Lipsitz ’72

Beverly Bea Lipsitz ’72, August 27, 2014, in Portland. Bev came to Reed from Stockbridge School in Massachusetts and studied at the college for a year and a half, and then took classes at Portland Community College and Portland State University, where she earned a BS in geography. In 1988, she completed an MA in geography at the University of Oregon and worked in climatology research. She also did computer programming and drove a school bus. When Bev received a diagnosis of ovarian cancer in 2008, she retired from her position as coordinator of the Banner student administrative database at Portland State. She studied photography and began traveling “just so she could use her camera in some of the most spectacular landscapes of the world,” says devoted friend Marie Reeder ’73. Bev went to Baja California, the Galapagos, Svalbard, Panama, and Costa Rica. She also traveled with photography instructor Eddie Soloway to California, Maine, Molokai, and Mexico. She supported other women with late-stage ovarian cancer at a weekly support group in Portland and at an annual retreat in Montana. She was active in the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance’s Survivors Teaching Students program. After living courageously for five years, supported by her family and close friends and her little dachshund, Scooby, she chose death with dignity. Survivors include her wife of 35 years, Rosalyn Basin; their son, Benjamin Basin, and his wife and son; and brother-in-law Daryl Bem ’60.

Appeared in Reed magazine: March 2015

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