Dr. Edward H. Worthen

1930 - 2016

Dr. Edward H. Worthen

Age: 86 • South Hero

Dr. Edward H. Worthen, a longtime resident of South Hero, Vermont, passed away on Wednesday, December 28, 2016, at the VNA Respite House in Colchester, Vermont, at the age of 86. Born on February 15, 1930 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts to Charles Kimball Worthen and Laura Alice Petty Worthen, he spent his early childhood in Burlington, Vermont at the home of his grandfather, Edward D. Worthen, a vice-president of the Chittenden County Trust Company. From 1934 until 1946 he lived in Amsterdam and Schenectady, New York. He was a 1947 graduate of Baldwin High School in Birmingham, Michigan. In 1951 he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan in Latin American Studies, followed by an M.A. degree in 1953 and the Ph.D. in Spanish in 1965. His dissertation, The Reconquest of Mexico: A Panoramic View of Mexican Literary Nationalism, is considered a definitive study in the field. Dr. Worthen's forty-year career in education, begun as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Michigan in 1953, included positions at Williams, Middlebury, and St. Michael's colleges. From 1970 until his retirement in 1993 he was an associate professor of Latin American Studies and Spanish at SUNY-Plattsburgh. Dr. Worthen was the author of a number of published scholarly essays and a biography of his great-grandfather, the Reverend McKendree Petty, Methodist clergyman and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Vermont. His last work, Tales from the Point, is the history of Kibbe Point in South Hero, Vermont, where he lived for most of his life. He was a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Delta Pi, and a patron of several historical, charitable, and cultural organizations. Eduardo, as he signed his annual holiday letter, was a man of deep intellect and strong opinions. He was warm, caring, humorous, and generous. Nothing pleased him more than an evening with friends at McKee's Pub or Shore Acres, accompanied by a gin martini, dirty and straight up. Ed was so particular about his martinis that he carried the recipe in his wallet to educate uninformed bartenders. It was common for Ed to pay the dinner bill (anonymously, of course) of a neighboring table and if you joined Ed for a meal you were always his guest. Ed was as proud to be a Schenectadian as he was to be a Methodist. He cherished his years in Ann Arbor and Mexico City, but it was his beloved home, the Birches, on Keeler's Bay where he found the most comfort, alternating the seasons between his summer and winter cottages. In addition to his many friends and neighbors in Vermont, Dr. Worthen leaves numerous friends in Mexico, for over half a century his "second home," as well as in England, Canada, and throughout the United States. He is survived by several cousins. He was predeceased by his beloved cats, Natalie, Sam and Will, and on September 29, 2007, by his dearest friend, Dr. Patricia A. Powers. Burial at her side will be in a private ceremony at Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont. Visiting hours will be held on Wednesday, January 4, from 2 to 4 P.M. at the Corbin and Palmer Funeral Chapel, 9 Pleasant Street in Essex Junction. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the South Hero Community Library, 75 South Street, South Hero, VT, 05486, or to the McLure-Miller VNA Respite House, c/o VNA of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties, 1110 Prim Road, Colchester, VT, 05446.

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