Photo/courtesy Heald @Chiampa
Shrewsbury – Words used to describe and remember Helen Lipkin: kind, passionate, loving, charismatic and curious. Helen died in the tender care of her family at home in Shrewsbury on Tuesday, December 02, 2014 after a courageous struggle with inflammatory breast cancer. She was 52.
Helen Stacey Levine was born March 11, 1962 in Queens, New York and was a daughter of Aaron and Carol (Rizzman) Levine. With a passion for learning and teaching she graduated from Commack High School North, earned her Bachelor of Science in Education from Framingham State University and her Master’s in Technology from Wellesley College.
‘A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.’ Helen Lipkin was a beloved and highly respected teacher at Sherwood Middle School. She taught Mathematics and Science on 6 Yellow for several years. Helen had an incredible spirit and an unbelievable strength. Her love and concern for others was evident in all that she did. She loved teaching and devoted countless hours to preparing lessons for her students, while focusing on making positive connections with them.
Plato said, ‘Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the world, flight to the imagination and life to everything.’ Helen played the trumpet and the guitar: she played bass in two bands, ‘Jack Rabbit Slim’ and ‘Fox Force Five.’ Other interests included building instruments, curiosity for the world, her doggies, time with family, shopping, woodworking, trips to Plymouth and the beach, concerts, traveling, and forever a student and teacher in and out of the classroom: she loved life and was always learning. In her sickness that she fought with such passion it became example for anyone who knew Helen. Her death with such dignity and peace were yet another lesson in life: Love one another and take care of everyone. Love lives on. ‘It’s not the years in a life….it’s the life in the years.”
The hardest math to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. Helen’s blessings are her family and friends: her wife of five years, Maria (Krug) Scott; her children, Samantha and Stacey Lipkin; her parents, Aaron and Carol (Rizzman) Levine of East Northport, Long Island, New York; her siblings, April Neitlich, Emily O’Brien, Elane Rice; her former husband, Lloyd Lipkin; her step-children, Suzanne and Clint Holmes, step-grandchildren, Thomas, Trent and Samantha Holmes; nieces and nephews, Joe, Jessica, Julie and John O’Brien, David and Daniel Rice, Stephanie Neitlich, Gus and Macy Lipkin; her sister-in-law, Alana Lipkin; Lloyd’s parents, Natalie and Leonard Lipkin; and a host of students, colleagues and friends who adored her.
Family and friends will gather to honor and remember Helen’s life on Wednesday, Dec. 3 from 5-8 p.m at Heald & Chiampa Funeral Directors ~ The Sumner House, 5 Church Rd., On the Common, Shrewsbury Center. A private family graveside service will be held on Thursday, December 4th in Mountain View Cemetery. Rabbi Aviva Fellman will officiate.
Honor her struggle with breast cancer with a contribution to Inflammatory Breast Cancer Foundation, IBC Research Foundation, P.O. Box 2805, West Lafayette, IN 47996.
