Patricia Lamson Chute, a writer of fiction and nonfiction who in recent decades turned to advocacy work in Haiti, died on December 4, 2025 at her home in Cambridge. A beloved wife, mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, colleague, and friend, Patricia will be missed by all who knew her. She was 89. The cause was complications from Alzheimer's Disease.
The daughter of a professor and a writer-journalist, Patricia was born in 1936 in Cambridge, where her father, Roy Lamson, was an Instructor of English at Harvard. In 1938 he joined the faculty at Williams College and the family moved to Williamstown, MA, where Patricia and her younger brother David enjoyed a happy bucolic upbringing (which she later addressed in her essay "The Treasures of a Williamstown Childhood," for The Advocate, noting how they roamed the community as "kids on foot" and often swam in Cole Porter's pool). In 1951 Patricia moved with her family to Paris, France, where Professor Lamson served as historian to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. In Paris, Patricia began high school and learned French, attending Cours Marymount for three years, a formative experience, and finishing her senior year at National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C.
Patricia majored in History at Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied with Professor Adda Bozeman, an expert in History and International Relations. She graduated in 1958, after marrying Stephen J. Fischer in 1957. They had two children, Sam and Valerie, and later divorced. Patricia had earlier acted, in summer-stock productions, at the Stockbridge Playhouse, sharing the stage with such renowned actors as Margaret Hamilton. After graduation and marriage, she expanded her love of the arts. Pursuing painting, Patricia produced colorful Expressionist work that won a prize in 1969.
That same year, Patricia pursued another path of her life's work, advocacy, beginning a job at the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services as a worker in the court system. Patricia was also interested in prisoners' rights and was a Director of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction (later the Crime and Justice Foundation). In 1974 she received her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the University of Southern California; she later received a Masters in Education (M.Ed.) from Harvard in 1977. Between her Masters degrees, Patricia married Richard S. Chute, a lawyer, and their two children, Hillary and Richard, were born.
It was in her forties that Patricia found her calling as a writer, a career that defined her adult life. As her own mother, Peggy Lamson, had done, she began by writing plays, before branching into short fiction for national magazines; her first published story appeared in McCall's, where it attracted the attention of a book agent. Her first novel, Eva's Music (Doubleday), the story of young harpist, appeared in 1983, and brought her acclaim. The New York Times Book Review called Eva's Music "an impressive debut" and noted "Ms. Chute is particularly canny with speech, which is pitch-perfect throughout." The following year, in 1984, Patricia was awarded a writer's residency at the MacDowell colony in Peterborough, NH. In 1987 she published her second novel, Castine (Doubleday). Set in Maine (in a town she often visited with her husband and family), it's the story of a free-lance writer from California transformed by her experiences there, particularly with a Czech minister. Patricia began teaching creative writing at the Harvard Extension School in the mid-1980s, a position she held for almost 10 years. She also ran, for many years, a popular writing seminar out of her home that attracted many in the Cambridge community.
For her next book Patricia widened her focus—with the perspective of her novelist's eye—and embarked on a deeply researched nonfiction work that led to many trips to Russia: Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana: His Life and Work in the Charmed World of His Estate. It was published by HarperCollins in 1991. The book features a large number of historic archival photographs, from numerous Russian sources including the Tolstoy estate. Patricia worked extensively with Russian scholars, archivists, research assistants, and translators, many of whom became lifelong friends. A Russian edition of the book appeared in 1998, the same year Patricia published the essay "Anton Chekov: The House in Yalta and the Final Years" in the Harvard Review, part of her ongoing research on Russian writers and the significance of domestic location. As she writes in the essay, "I decided the travel to Yalta to see his final residence, to try to understand the nature of it, and to see if and how the house, which confined him, might have influenced the last years of his work." During this period Patricia published dispatches and essays in the Harvard Review (such as 1995's "Letter from Tula" and 1996's "Letter from St. Petersburg") and the Christian Science Monitor, among others, as well as a completing a draft of a book on Chekov.
In the late 1990s, Patricia became passionately devoted to improving conditions in Haiti, a project that would shape the rest of her life, for multiple decades, in profound ways, including in frequent visits to Haiti and collaborations on the ground with Haitian doctors, nurses, and teachers. (As a young woman, Patricia visited Haiti several times as a tourist, including on her honeymoon in 1976.) Patricia was a devoted supporter of the community of Fond des Blancs, the region located on the southern peninsula in rural Haiti that is home to St. Boniface Hospital, the largest full-service hospital open to all in the south of Haiti. She was a board member of the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation (now Health Equity International) and Haiti Projects, a nonprofit focused on women and families in Fond des Blancs. Later, she organized the Haiti Rural Education Fund, focusing on expanding opportunities for both pupils and teachers, aiming to provide kids with more resources and to value the work of teachers financially and otherwise. Every August there is a teacher training in Sainton, the main town in Fond des Blancs, supported by the Rural Education Fund.
Patricia and Richard Chute marked their 50-year wedding anniversary a few days before her death. A warm, loving, exuberant, generous and often amusing parent and grandparent, she was adored by her children and grandchildren. Aside from her husband, she is survived by her brother David Lamson and his wife Betsy; her children Sam Fischer, Valerie Deering, Hillary Chute, and Richard Chute, Jr., and their partners, including Heather Fischer and Jennifer Kurz Chute; her step-daughter Toni Chute; her grandchildren Amy Fischer, Eliza Fischer, Zach Deering, Finn Deering, Isabella Chute, Ariel Chute, and Henry Chute; her nephew William Lamson and his wife Jeanne Rene, and niece Margot Lamson and her husband Justin; and her former sister-in-law Gay Vervaet. Her great-granddaughter Ivy Ashe was born in October 2025. Gifts in Patricia's name may be made to the Haiti Rural Education Fund (60 Cardinal O'Connell Way, Boston, MA, 02114) or the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (https://www.ssje.org/support/), the Cambridge monastic community where Patricia worshipped. A memorial is planned for the spring.
The daughter of a professor and a writer-journalist, Patricia was born in 1936 in Cambridge, where her father, Roy Lamson, was an Instructor of English at Harvard. In 1938 he joined the faculty at Williams College and the family moved to Williamstown, MA, where Patricia and her younger brother David enjoyed a happy bucolic upbringing (which she later addressed in her essay "The Treasures of a Williamstown Childhood," for The Advocate, noting how they roamed the community as "kids on foot" and often swam in Cole Porter's pool). In 1951 Patricia moved with her family to Paris, France, where Professor Lamson served as historian to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. In Paris, Patricia began high school and learned French, attending Cours Marymount for three years, a formative experience, and finishing her senior year at National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C.
Patricia majored in History at Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied with Professor Adda Bozeman, an expert in History and International Relations. She graduated in 1958, after marrying Stephen J. Fischer in 1957. They had two children, Sam and Valerie, and later divorced. Patricia had earlier acted, in summer-stock productions, at the Stockbridge Playhouse, sharing the stage with such renowned actors as Margaret Hamilton. After graduation and marriage, she expanded her love of the arts. Pursuing painting, Patricia produced colorful Expressionist work that won a prize in 1969.
That same year, Patricia pursued another path of her life's work, advocacy, beginning a job at the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services as a worker in the court system. Patricia was also interested in prisoners' rights and was a Director of the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction (later the Crime and Justice Foundation). In 1974 she received her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the University of Southern California; she later received a Masters in Education (M.Ed.) from Harvard in 1977. Between her Masters degrees, Patricia married Richard S. Chute, a lawyer, and their two children, Hillary and Richard, were born.
It was in her forties that Patricia found her calling as a writer, a career that defined her adult life. As her own mother, Peggy Lamson, had done, she began by writing plays, before branching into short fiction for national magazines; her first published story appeared in McCall's, where it attracted the attention of a book agent. Her first novel, Eva's Music (Doubleday), the story of young harpist, appeared in 1983, and brought her acclaim. The New York Times Book Review called Eva's Music "an impressive debut" and noted "Ms. Chute is particularly canny with speech, which is pitch-perfect throughout." The following year, in 1984, Patricia was awarded a writer's residency at the MacDowell colony in Peterborough, NH. In 1987 she published her second novel, Castine (Doubleday). Set in Maine (in a town she often visited with her husband and family), it's the story of a free-lance writer from California transformed by her experiences there, particularly with a Czech minister. Patricia began teaching creative writing at the Harvard Extension School in the mid-1980s, a position she held for almost 10 years. She also ran, for many years, a popular writing seminar out of her home that attracted many in the Cambridge community.
For her next book Patricia widened her focus—with the perspective of her novelist's eye—and embarked on a deeply researched nonfiction work that led to many trips to Russia: Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana: His Life and Work in the Charmed World of His Estate. It was published by HarperCollins in 1991. The book features a large number of historic archival photographs, from numerous Russian sources including the Tolstoy estate. Patricia worked extensively with Russian scholars, archivists, research assistants, and translators, many of whom became lifelong friends. A Russian edition of the book appeared in 1998, the same year Patricia published the essay "Anton Chekov: The House in Yalta and the Final Years" in the Harvard Review, part of her ongoing research on Russian writers and the significance of domestic location. As she writes in the essay, "I decided the travel to Yalta to see his final residence, to try to understand the nature of it, and to see if and how the house, which confined him, might have influenced the last years of his work." During this period Patricia published dispatches and essays in the Harvard Review (such as 1995's "Letter from Tula" and 1996's "Letter from St. Petersburg") and the Christian Science Monitor, among others, as well as a completing a draft of a book on Chekov.
In the late 1990s, Patricia became passionately devoted to improving conditions in Haiti, a project that would shape the rest of her life, for multiple decades, in profound ways, including in frequent visits to Haiti and collaborations on the ground with Haitian doctors, nurses, and teachers. (As a young woman, Patricia visited Haiti several times as a tourist, including on her honeymoon in 1976.) Patricia was a devoted supporter of the community of Fond des Blancs, the region located on the southern peninsula in rural Haiti that is home to St. Boniface Hospital, the largest full-service hospital open to all in the south of Haiti. She was a board member of the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation (now Health Equity International) and Haiti Projects, a nonprofit focused on women and families in Fond des Blancs. Later, she organized the Haiti Rural Education Fund, focusing on expanding opportunities for both pupils and teachers, aiming to provide kids with more resources and to value the work of teachers financially and otherwise. Every August there is a teacher training in Sainton, the main town in Fond des Blancs, supported by the Rural Education Fund.
Patricia and Richard Chute marked their 50-year wedding anniversary a few days before her death. A warm, loving, exuberant, generous and often amusing parent and grandparent, she was adored by her children and grandchildren. Aside from her husband, she is survived by her brother David Lamson and his wife Betsy; her children Sam Fischer, Valerie Deering, Hillary Chute, and Richard Chute, Jr., and their partners, including Heather Fischer and Jennifer Kurz Chute; her step-daughter Toni Chute; her grandchildren Amy Fischer, Eliza Fischer, Zach Deering, Finn Deering, Isabella Chute, Ariel Chute, and Henry Chute; her nephew William Lamson and his wife Jeanne Rene, and niece Margot Lamson and her husband Justin; and her former sister-in-law Gay Vervaet. Her great-granddaughter Ivy Ashe was born in October 2025. Gifts in Patricia's name may be made to the Haiti Rural Education Fund (60 Cardinal O'Connell Way, Boston, MA, 02114) or the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (https://www.ssje.org/support/), the Cambridge monastic community where Patricia worshipped. A memorial is planned for the spring.
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