Dr. Suzanne Ripley, 72, of Edgecomb, one of the pioneers of the field study of primates, died unexpectedly of an aortic dissection on Feb. 22 while visiting Santa Monica, Cal. Dr. Ripley was born on Feb. 10, 1936 in Newton, Mass. to Lydia (Overbosch) and William P. Ripley and was older sister to Arie Jan (“Mick”) Ripley, and younger sister to Joanne Spencer.
She graduated high school from the Winsor School in Boston, Mass. in 1954 and received her B.A. from Barnard College in 1958. She earned her Doctorate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1965. Her graduate research took her to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and subsequently, from 1967-1972, she was the co-principal investigator of the Smithsonian Primate Survey and Tame Elephants Projects in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.
Dr. Suzanne Ripley was a professor of Anthropology at the City College of New York during the 1970s and a visiting professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA in 1981.
Dr. Ripley was married to Derrick B. Thomas from 1973 to 1984. She had two children, Leila Ripley, born in 1972, and Ranjit Thomas, born in 1977. Her second marriage was to noted botanist Dr. F. Raymond Fosberg, who passed away in 1993.
Dr. Ripley had a long family history in Midcoast Maine, dating back to her grandfather, William Z. Ripley, famous economist, sociologist and MIT Professor, who retired to Boothbay in the late 1800s. Her parents resided in Edgecomb at the property that Suzanne made her home for the final decade of her life. She was a lifelong participant in the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
Memorial service 11 a.m., Sat., July 12 at the Edgecomb Town Hall with a luncheon reception to follow.
In lieu of flowers, the family would be honored if contributions were made in Dr. Ripley’s memory to the grassroots Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project (to help save one of the most critically endangered primate species in the world). The “ZGAP” program has been personally referred by one of Suzanne Ripley’s professional colleagues. http://www.catbalangur.org/
