Claire Wilson
RIPTON — Claire Wilson passed away at her home in Ripton on Dec. 31, 2007, surrounded by family and friends. Born Sept. 26, 1950, in Evanston, Ill., Claire Ellen Lodal was the firstborn child of Norm and Shirley Lodal and the namesake of her beloved grandfather Clarence Edward Nelson.
Raised in Skokie and Rockford, Ill., with her three siblings, Beth, Peter and John, Claire lived in a close-knit family that enjoyed sports, music and reading. As an undergraduate, Claire attended Illinois Wesleyan University where she majored in English, graduated Phi Beta Kappa and later served for three terms as a college trustee. As a sophomore, she met Christopher Kent Wilson and they were married during their senior year on Dec. 27, 1970.
After graduation, Claire and Kit moved to New Haven, Conn., where Claire earned her master’s degree in special education. Before giving birth to her first son, Benjamin Lodal Wilson, in 1976, Claire taught in the North Haven school system and at Southern Connecticut State College. In 1979, the family moved to Ripton, Vt. During the early 1980s, Claire worked in the Student Activities Office at Middlebury College, served as a college carilloneur and was an active member of the Ralph Myhre Golf Course and an early organizer of Hook-a-Kid on Golf.
In 1984, she gave birth to her second son, Peter Copp Wilson, and began working for Professor Steven Rockefeller, assisting him with his many scholarly projects, including his biography of John Dewey, his work on the Earth Charter, and the college symposiums and art exhibitions, Christ and the Bodhisattva (1984) and Spirit and Nature (1990), celebrating the visits of the Dalai Lama to Middlebury.
