Lorna Lowry Coppinger

1936 - 2025

Lorna Lowry Coppinger

Montague, MA - Lorna Lowry (Baxter) Coppinger, 88, of Montague, MA, died in her home with family on Sunday, March 30, 2025, supported by Hospice of the Fisher Home. She is predeceased by her husband, Raymond P. Coppinger, who she was married to for over 60 years, and her sister Ann Soule. Lorna is survived by children, Karyn and Timothy, grandchildren Isabelle, Josephine and Tai, and her brother Larry Baxter.

Lorna was born in Lynchburg, VA and grew up in Lexington, MA close to the Lexington Common. She graduated with an A.B. cum laude from Boston University in Slavic Languages and Literatures, and from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with an M.S. in Wildlife Biology.

A constant in both Lorna and Ray's life were dogs, starting with their first date and Ray's dog Smokey. While she and Ray were in graduate school, Ray put together and raced several teams of huskies, while Lorna took photographs and wrote the first comprehensive book on the sport, The World of Sled Dogs (awarded Best Technical Book, 1977, Dog Writers Association of America).

Lorna worked as a Faculty Associate in Biology at Hampshire College, alongside Ray's faculty position. Together, from 1977 - 1986, at the Hampshire College Farm Center, they formed the Livestock Guarding Dog Project as an Old World system of non-lethal control of livestock predators. This innovative program introduced Old World flock protection dogs to the New World. They traveled to Europe to study and acquire livestock guarding dogs and placed puppies from their breeding program at Hampshire College at farms in most of the United States and Canada. Along with students at Hampshire College, they bred and placed over 2,000 puppies. Within ten years, the use of livestock guarding dogs had been widely adopted by farmers and producers. The project at Hampshire College was a success, and with this widespread adoption, slowly phased out. Livestock guarding dogs are now commonplace on many farms in the US and Canada, thanks to the work of Ray and Lorna and their students.

Lorna was a professional writer and editor, photographer, researcher, language aficionado, and wordsmith. She was loved by her students who often said if it wasn't for Lorna's editing prowess and attention to the written word that their careers would not be the same. Lorna was soft spoken, precise with her grammar and passionate about good writing. In addition to the first book on sled dogs, she wrote and edited several additional books with Ray on dog behavior, evolution, and biology, and numerous newspaper, journal and magazine articles. Lorna loved Red Sox Baseball, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, crossword puzzles and a good book to read. She was a scholar of WWII and of Winston Churchill.

Family was a priority for Lorna who had "Gran Day" on Wednesday half days when she cared for her three grandchildren. She lived at the farm where she and Ray hosted many students for research projects and meals, and more recently as an extended family with her son Tim and his wife Lise, grandson Tai and (of course) a dog, Tia. She is sorely missed by all.