Winthrop Walker Piper ’43 died on January 6, 2005, in Dalton, Massachusetts.

Born on August 30, 1921, in Newmarket, NH, he prepared for college at Keene (NH) High School and the Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts and became a member of Psi Upsilon Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation in 1943 he served for three years in the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy during World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant junior grade. After the war, he remained in the Navy Reserve and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander while serving in the Seabees in Pittsfield, MA. In 1949, he received a master of arts degree from Columbia University, where he also completed all the course work for a doctor of philosophy degree. After serving as head of the English department at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas, he was an instructor in English at Connecticut College in New London, at Colby College in Waterville, and at the University of Vermont in Burlington. From 1959 until 1965, he was head of the English department at Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, MA. In 1964, he joined the faculty at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, which was recently incorporated, and later became the first chair of its English department. After retiring in 1988, he continued to teach evening courses, including classes for the Elderhostel program. Surviving are three sons, Winthrop D. Piper of Etna, NH, the Reverend Geoffrey T. Piper of West Bloomfield, MI, and Andres L. Piper of Pittsfield, MA; a daughter, Emilie A. Shipman of Enfield, NH; a brother, Lawrence H. Piper of Keene, NH; a sister, Pamela Dygert of Keene; his stepmother, Gertrude Piper of Keene; and nine grandchildren.