Joan Lipsky

Joan Lipsky

Cedar Rapids

Joan Miller Lipsky, 96, of Cedar Rapids, died Tuesday August 18, 2015. Services: 2:00 p.m. Friday at Temple Judah by Rabbi Todd Thalblum. Burial: Eben Israel.



Joan was born April 9, 1919 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to John and Ruth Miller. Joan attended old Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, and graduated from Gulf Park Academy for Women in Gulfport, Mississippi. She received a BS in psychology from Northwestern University in 1940 and attended graduate school at the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa). She married Abbott Lipsky in 1941. After the war, Joan and Abbott moved to Cedar Rapids, where they raised three children.

Joan became active in community service and women's clubs, including as chair of the Mayor's Commission on Housing, the Mayor's Commission on Alcoholism, and the Employment Security Advisory Council. In November 1966, Joan Lipsky was the first woman elected to represent Linn County in the Iowa General Assembly. She took a special interest in working for women's legal, economic, and social equality through her work on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment, her support of educational and occupational programs for women, and her interest in reforming women's prisons in Iowa. During her tenure as a state representative, Joan served as the Assistant Minority Leader of the Iowa General Assembly and a member of the Midwest Conference of State Legislators. She was recognized as an outstanding legislator by the Iowa Welfare Association and the Business and Professional Women. In 1975, she participated in the first World Conference for Women in Mexico City, Mexico. She served six terms in the General Assembly, from 1967 to 1978. In 1976, Joan was awarded an honorary JD from Mount Mercy College and she was named the Cedar Rapids Woman of the Year in 1979.

During her final term in office, she began to attend law school at the University of Iowa. After graduation with a JD in 1980, she practiced law in Cedar Rapids, at the law firm of Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, P.C. In 1986, she ran for lieutenant governor of Iowa on the Republican ticket with Governor Terry Branstad, the last election when gubernatorial candidates and candidates for lieutenant governor ran separately in Iowa.

Joan joined the Board of Trustees of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in 1973 and remained an Honorary Trustee until her passing. She became a member of the Coe College Board of Trustees in 1982, and was elected as chair in 1997. In 2014 she served as commencement speaker, was awarded the degree Doctor of Humane Letters and became a Trustee Emeritus.

Survivors include her children, Ann Lipsky, John (Zsuzsanna Karasz) Lipsky, and Tad (Susan) Lipsky; and grandchildren, Leah (Michael Shaheen), John (Bria) Mertens, Elisa (Ian Mohr) Lipsky-Karasz, Alexandra (Zachary Smith) Mertens, Daniel (Julia Zangwill) Lipsky-Karasz, Alyson (Daryn Cambridge) Lipsky, Andrea Lipsky-Karasz.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Abbott Lipsky, and parents, John and Ruth Miller.



Memorials may be directed to Coe College, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, or Selby Gardens in Sarasota, FL in Joan's memory.

Online condolences may be directed to the family at cedarmemorial.com under Obituaries.