Edna Duchin Lipsitt

Edna Duchin Lipsitt, 94, passed away on November 4, 2025, at Steere House Nursing Home in Providence, RI. She lived at Laurelmead on Blackstone Blvd. for 18 years. Edna was predeceased by her husband and best friend of 69 years, Lewis Paeff Lipsitt in 2021. Edna grew up in Cambridge and Newton, MA, the daughter of the late Maurice Duchin and Rose Brill Duchin Soloff. Edna and Lew moved to Providence when Lew joined the Brown University Psychology Department in 1957. Right from the start of Lew’s career, they developed a unique and powerful partnership. Edna embraced Lew’s professional life, and created a home environment that assisted him in becoming an extraordinary professor and researcher. Their conversations and her editorial skills were invaluable. She helped create an enriched social life for the whole family. Edna and Lew’s home was frequented by family, friends, faculty, national and international visitors and always students - undergraduate and graduate. They formed strong bonds with students, many becoming lifelong friends and collaborators with Lew. They traveled together while Lew lectured around the globe, staying with professors, researchers, former students, friends and family linking them to locations off the beaten path with opportunities to see more than what might be on a tourist’s list. England became a second home, taking sabbaticals and multiple trips to do research and lecture while making many special lifelong friends, such as Tony Ambrose and Annie Ambrose McGregor. Edna’s family included many English relatives who became very dear to them and were often visited in England and hosted in their home. Edna embraced faculty life, helping bring faculty and staff together for gatherings. She was incredibly creative and a natural problem solver. She was sought out for committee and board work. One example of her problem solving skills started in the late 60’s when she assisted new members of the Brown community find housing and household items by creating an exchange program to equip graduate students and visiting professors with household needs. From provisions to hosting, she made sure that everyone felt welcomed and looked after. She had a special talent for connecting people who would likely enjoy each other and brought them together in their home for festive gatherings. Edna was an amazingly talented cook and relished every opportunity to bring family and friends together. She was skilled at setting a table that was as unique as her, creating dishes that left people asking for recipes and commenting on their deliciousness! Edna was a great conversationalist. She asked engaging questions that brought out others’ interests and life experiences. Edna was joyful and fun to be with, she was attentive, loving and filled with kindness. Her humor, laughter, and her big smile were infectious. Visits with her left people wanting to be together again. Education was enormously important to Edna. She and Lew helped establish an educational fund at Laurelmead to support staff and their children. Grantees of this fund find opportunities to broaden their educational horizons, increasing their potential, developing skills and exploring new career options. Edna and Lew also created the Lewis Paeff and Edna Duchin Lipsitt Lecture Series in Child Behavior and Development at Brown University which is in its 20th year. Edna was a teacher in all aspects of her life. Whomever she traveled with, she found person-specific opportunities for learning. Edna received her BS in early childhood education at Lesley College (on the same day that she married Lew,) taught pre-school and kindergarten and she was a treasured substitute teacher. She loved teaching cooking and baking skills to her daughter Ann and her young friends. When Ann grew up, Edna borrowed other people’s children, most especially her niece, Sarah Lipsitt, passing on her love of creating in the kitchen. Friends of Mark and Ann remember Edna as being warm, caring and comfortable to be around, she was often the parent that other kids found easy to talk with and they left feeling heard, respected and well fed. Edna leaves behind her daughter, Ann Duchin Lipsitt of Essex Junction, VT. She was predeceased by her dear sister, Grace Duchin Falk, 2013 and her son, Mark Steven Lipsitt, 2023. She leaves behind cherished nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law. Contributions in memory of Edna could be made to Planned Parenthood https://www.plannedparenthood.org/, Community Music Works https://communitymusicworks.org/ or RI Food Bank https://rifoodbank.org/