Obituary: Judith Dickson, 1945-2023

Judith F. Dickson, 77, died Thursday, July 6, 2023, at her home in
Burlington, Vt., surrounded by her children and her beloved dog,
Sadie. She died of congestive heart failure that had been plaguing
her — but not stopping her! — for a number of years. In her final
weeks, she had many visits from family members and dear lifelong
friends.

Judy
was born in Boston, Mass., on December 21, 1945, to Edith and Francis
Foldes, Hungarian Jews who had immigrated to the U.S. in September
1941. She and her two sisters grew up in Pittsburgh, where Judy was a
ball of energy as a child — twirling batons, practicing dance moves
and playing tennis with her friends, and horseback-riding with her
father. In high school, Judy was a star cheerleader and also began
discovering political activism through her Unitarian Church youth
group.

In
1963, Judy followed her older sister Eva to Connecticut College,
graduating in 1967, and then attended the Harvard Graduate School of
Education. After teaching at HeadStart in the Boston area for several
years, Judy attended law school at Northeastern University. She met
her husband, Don Dickson, when they were both grad students in
Cambridge, Mass. They married in 1972, and Judy followed Don to
Vermont after finishing law school in 1976. They settled down on
Ledgemere Street in the “Five Sisters” neighborhood of
Burlington, where they lived for over 40 years and raised their three
children, Amy, David and Jeff.

Judy
was a fighter. At the age of 19, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, a disease that, at the time, did not leave many survivors.
She persevered through college while undergoing radiation, but her
cancer returned a year later. With her doctor father’s help, Judy
enrolled in the first ever clinical trial for combination
chemotherapy at the National Institutes of Health. This involved
frequent flights from New England to D.C., on which Judy would
attempt to keep up with her coursework between bouts of chemo-induced
nausea. This treatment was ultimately successful,and gave Judy almost
60 more years, but the experimental doses of radiation and
chemotherapy also resulted in slowly progressing damage to her heart
and lungs that led to her cardiovascular disease later in life.

Judy
was also a fighter for civil rights and social justice. She spent the
bulk of her legal career at Vermont Legal Aid, where she directed the
Disability Law Project for over 25 years. Judy was a relentless
advocate for young people, collaborating with schools and other
agencies to meet the needs of each of her clients. Always ready to
fight for the rights of her own kids too, in the late 1990s Judy
co-founded Parents for Civil Unions, which helped lay the groundwork
for same-sex marriage in Vermont. After retiring from Legal Aid, Judy
put her legal expertise to work volunteering for the Vermont Refugee
Resettlement Program, where she helped countless New Vermonters get
green cards. Her identity as the child of immigrants made her
passionately committed to helping others access the same
opportunities. Judy was an active member of the Vermont Bar
Foundation for many years and received the Vermont Bar Association’s
Distinguished Pro Bono Service Award in 2013.

While
juggling full-time work and a wide variety of volunteer service, Judy
always had time for her family. She taught her children how to ski
and spent countless winter weekends shepherding all three kids up and
down the slopes. In the summers, Judy loved to spend time with her
family in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, swimming with her kids and sisters
in the ponds and walking the beaches. Judy was a fantastic cook and
loved to spend time in the kitchen. In the last few years, Judy’s
grandson, Jonah, always looked forward to baking cookies and scones
with Grandma.

Judy
also always had time for her friends. She stayed close with a number
of classmates from elementary school through law school, while
maintaining correspondence and taking trips with them throughout her
life. In Vermont, many of her friendships were forged with a network
of women who were carving out their career paths as a new generation
of women lawyers, academics and politicians. Judy loved to read, and
her multiple monthly book groups were a highlight of her social life
for decades. Friends of Judy loved her wit, her big smile and her wry
sense of humor. She suffered no fools, but she was always glad to
talk, listen and laugh with a friend.

Judy
is survived by her three children, Amy, David and Jeff Dickson; her
grandson, Jonah Dickson; her sister and brother-in-law, Barbara and
Richard Wolkowitz; and nieces and nephews, Nicholas and Emily Travers
and Eva and Daniel Wolkowitz. She was predeceased by her husband of
48 years, Don Dickson, and her sister and brother-in-law, Eva and
Jeff Travers.

The
family wishes to thank the University of Vermont Home Health &
Hospice, home helpers Deb Holonitch and
Paula Willoquet, and the many friends whose visits brought joy and
laughter to Judy’s last few years.

A
memorial service will be held on Saturday, August 12, 2023, at 3:30
p.m., at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 152 Pearl St.,
Burlington, VT.

Contributions
in Judy’s memory may be made to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and
Immigrants Vermont (formerly the Vermont Refugee Resettlement
Program), Emerge Vermont or the Vermont Bar Foundation.

This article appears in The Cartoon Issue 2023.