Joan Miller Lipsky

Lipsky, Joan Miller
Apr. 9, 1919 - Aug. 18, 2015
Joan Miller Lipsky, 96, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Sarasota, FL, died Tuesday August 18, 2015. Joan was born April 9, 1919 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Joan 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.
In November 1966, Joan Lipsky was the first woman elected to represent Linn County in the Iowa General Assembly. 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.
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, Iowa. In 1986, she ran for lieutenant governor of Iowa on the Republican ticket with Governor Terry Branstad.
Joan joined the Board of Trustees of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in 1973 and remained an Honorary Trustee until her passing. Since the mid-1990s she has been a member and volunteer at Selby Gardens during her winters spent on Longboat Key.
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. 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.