Lila Freedman

FREEDMAN, LILA Long-time Yale College Director of Publications Lila Freedman passed away in the Whitney Center in Hamden Wednesday night. She was 86 years old. Born in Brooklyn in 1924, Freedman earned her B.A. from Brooklyn College, an M.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her Ph.D. with Honors from the University of Wisconsin. After teaching at the University of Rhode Island and the University of Iowa, she worked as a free-lance editor before moving to New Haven in 1972. She joined Yale in 1974, ultimately rising to the position of Director of Publications for Yale College, where she edited the Yale College Course Catalogue and supervised the numerous other publications. A passionate student of Yale architecture and ornament, she authored many articles on the gargoyles of Yale and led Elderhostel tours of the campus. She also edited and wrote an introduction for former Yale College Dean of Undergraduate Students Martin Griffin's book, Latitudinarianism in Seventeenth-Century England as well as a collection of Griffin's informal writing, In His Own Words. Beloved by her colleagues and by the bursary students she mentored, Lila Freedman also taught composition in the English Department, tutored high-school students, and participated in the Center for Independent Studies. She retired from Yale in 1995. Lila 's other great love in life was travel. She spent much of her free time in Europe and North and West Africa. Lila Freedman is survived by her brother, Robert Hermann, of Brookline, Mass., two sons, Jonathan of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Mark of Paris, France, and by six adoring grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at a later date. The Weller Funeral Home, 493 Whitney Ave., New Haven is in charge of arrangements. To sign a memorial book please visit wellerfuneralhome.com