Amy Kleppner Obituary

Amy Morrissey Kleppner, 93, of Wardsboro, VT, died peacefully at home with family at her side. She was a teacher, writer, public speaker, selectboard member, and adventurer, as well as a wife, mom, grandmother, and beloved aunt. She graduated from Smith College in 1952, worked for the Mount Holyoke News Bureau and received an M.A. in 1954, and was one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. She did so while teaching physical education in New York City. She went on to teach philosophy at Howard University, where her students included future civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael, and at University College of the University of Maryland. After marrying Adam Kleppner, her husband of more than 50 years, she gave up full-time teaching to raise two sons, Bram and Caleb. Amy later returned to teaching as a high school English teacher and spent the last 10 years of her professional career at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. Following retirement, she and her husband moved to Wardsboro, where they had spent summers since 1964. In addition to several articles, Amy wrote a manual for high school students, Research Paper Procedure, published by Teacher's Discovery, and co-authored a local pictorial history, Wardsboro VT: Exposing the Past. She was elected to the Wardsboro Selectboard in 2008, only the third woman to do so since the town was chartered in 1780. She was a lifelong adventurer. As a teenager in the 1940s, she biked from Boston to Quebec City, and over the decades trekked and kayaked in France, Siberia, Alaska, Spain, and New Zealand, and swam in Antarctica. Amy celebrated her 85th birthday with a 100-mile hike in England, and, at 92, set off for the Mediterranean to retrace some of Odysseus's voyage. Her advocacy for women's rights, adventurous spirit, and athleticism were traits she shared with, and were perhaps inspired by, her aunt, Amelia Earhart. She was predeceased by Adam Kleppner, her husband of 59 years, and is survived by her sons Bram and Caleb, her daughters-in-law Genie Henry and Susannah Bernheim, and her many grandchildren, in-laws, nephews and nieces, as well as her longtime roommate, care provider, and dear friend, Suzanne Harrington. Memorial information: To honor Amy, donations may be made to the Wardsboro Public Library (wardsboropubliclibrary.org); Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (plannedparenthood.org); the Safety Team (thesafetyteam.org); or the Population Media Center (populationmedia.org). To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Amy, please visit our floral store.