Helen Fruchtman Lipson

Helen Fruchtman Lipson died peacefully on January 1, 2018, just five months shy of her 100th birthday. Helen was born in Brooklyn and educated at Hunter College. She moved to Washington during the historic administration of FDR’s New Deal to pursue her commitment to progressive politics. There she met her first husband, Labor Department attorney Edward Fruchtman. When Ed became General Counsel at the Chicago Housing Authority they moved to Chicago, where they had three children and were engaged members of Chicago’s progressive Hyde Park community.

After Ed’s untimely death in 1957, Helen began a new chapter in New York. While raising three children as a single mother, she worked as a science writer at Medical Tribune and in public relations for the Karen Horney Institute and NYU Medical School. In 1966 she moved to Boston to become Public Information Director of the Harvard Community Health Plan, before returning some years later to Chicago.

In 1979 she joined her children in the Bay Area, where she enjoyed a long and happy second marriage to Leslie Lipson, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at UC Berkeley. Helen continued to seek new challenges, creating the weekly radio interview program “Health News and Views” at KALW-FM.

After Professor Lipson’s death in 2000 Helen lived at The Sequoias of San Francisco. There she formed a new community of friends and continued to explore her interests in world affairs and culture at the Fromm Institute For Lifelong Learning into her nineties. Helen lived her long life with warmth, generosity and a commitment to social justice.

She is survived by her three children: Lisa, Peter and Rob Fruchtman, son-in-law Norman Postone, daughter-in-law Yuka Narasaki Fruchtman, six beloved grandchildren: Brody, Shawn, Ariel, Zach, Christina, Kira and a devoted circle of extended family. She will be missed and remembered with much love.