Edith S. Keppel

Edith S. Keppel died unexpectedly on March 3, 2011, at the age of ninety-one. “Deedie” was the daughter of Melvin and Edith Sawin of New York and Rhode Island and the sister of the late David and Moulton Sawin. She was the wife of the late Francis Keppel, a champion of equal educational opportunity, former Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and U.S. Commissioner of Education under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. In 2006, she was predeceased by her partner of nine years, H. Shippen Goodhue, and the most recently, by her close companion Casimir deRham. She is survived by her two daughters and their families: Edith Tracy Drury and her partner Ray Holland of Waterbury, Vermont, and Susan Keller and her husband David of Medford, Mass. She leaves four grandsons: Samuel and Benjamin Drury, and Matthew and Charles Keller. She leaves Addie Rose, Matthew and Flora Holland, her step grandchildren, as well as two great-grandchildren, Martica and Ian Drury. And she leaves her cousin Henry Humphrey Moulton of Cambridge and many nieces and nephews and generations of living cousins. A service celebrating Deedie’s life will be held at Memorial Church, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Mass., on Monday, March 21, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. Interment will take place in early August in her summer community of 62 years, North Hatley, Quebec, Canada. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Deedie’s memory to The Family Nurturing Center, 200 Bowdoin Street, Dorchester, Mass., 02122. If you wish to leave a message for the family, please go to www.ccshepherd.com