Doris Rosenwasser Rips

1927 - 2024

Doris Rosenwasser Rips
February 13, 1927 - April 28, 2024
Doris Rosenwasser Rips died on April 28, 2024, leaving behind a grateful and loving family, close friends, and wonderful memories. She was born in Stamford, Tx, to Birdie and Louis Rosenwasser on February 13, 1927. She was preceded in death by Bill, her husband of more than 50 years. They were a beautiful and devoted couple.
Doris grew up in Stamford with her older sisters Bernice and Helen and her younger brother Ed. She had a backbone of steel. She was an expert swimmer, an accomplished pianist, and worked in the dry goods store her parents owned on the town square.
At the age of 17, she drove alone down the dusty roads from Stamford to Austin, where she enrolled in the University of Texas and began study as an Economics major ("not home economics!" she would say). She made many life-long friends through her sorority AEPhi and took part in demonstrations for ousted UT President Homer Rainey. She graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa.
In 1947, she married Bill Rips, a returning veteran. They put down roots in San Antonio, where Bill went to work for the family business. Bill was also an aspiring poet, so the young couple spent a summer at a writing program at Kenyon College, where writers Herbert Read and Allen Tate became big fans of Doris's Texas chili.
In San Antonio, Doris read books to children at the public library and taught English to Jewish Russian refugees. For nearly five decades, Bill and Doris became part of a close circle of friends devoted to Great Books, civil rights, peace activism, and eating well. They included the Bernards, the Kosts, the Lifshutz, the Goldbergs, and the Mavericks.
Beginning in the early 1950s, Doris also was a founding member of one of the longest running bridge games in San Antonio. It included friends Elinor, Jean, Casey, Martha, Sue, and Phyllis.
Doris was completely devoted to her children, Geoff and Jill, who arrived in 1950 and 1952. She was often a home-room mother and provided ongoing moral and emotional support, including as an all-in adventure companion for Jill on several international trips.
Doris and friends Florence Kost, Loretta Bernard, Pat Goldberg, Von Lifshutz, and Julia Maverick founded Women for Peace in San Antonio. They set up a table on the River Walk during the Vietnam War to provide information to service members and others on the war and on ways for service members who opposed the war to leave the service with the help of a lawyer. They took their share of abuse, but they also earned the gratitude of many young men and women.
With Bill's death in a car accident in 1998, she was terribly saddened, but she revived with the arrival of Jill's infant daughter Sian, whom she played a big part in raising. Sian provided the energy and special nourishment for Doris's last 25 years of life. And Jill provided ongoing support as Doris's health began to decline in the last few years.
Doris was a loving grandmother to Gabriela, Sascha, and Sian. She was also overjoyed by visits and photos of great-grandchildren Amelia, Gael, and Henry.
She was preceded in death by Bill, sisters Helen Alexander and Bernice Davis, and brother Ed Rosenwasser, as well as brother-in-law Jack Rips, sister-in-law Barbara Rips Hammer, brother-in-law Stanley Hammer, and nephew Clay Rips. She is survived by her grandchildren and great grandchildren, by Jill Rips, Geoff Rips, and daughter-in-law Nancy Maniscalco, as well as by sisters-in-law Janet Rosenwasser and Martha Rips, and by beloved nieces, nephews, and friends.
The family thanks her extraordinary and loving caregivers, especially Delia Nieto, Marisela Quiroz, Connie Martinez, Jennifer Cisneros and Cynthia Bates, her hospice nurse Randall Trevino, and Dr. Bradley Kayser.
As much as Doris loved flowers, she loved doing good more and asked that donations be made to Planned Parenthood South Texas, the Texas Freedom Network (tfn.org), or the cause of your choice.
A small family gathering will be held to celebrate Doris in the near future.