Dr. Gretchen Rous Besser died in her Morrisville home on June 7 at age 97 ½, surrounded by loving family. She lived fully, vibrantly, and independently until her final week (as shown by the pleasure she still took in partaking of her favorite dessert, pavlova). She was buried at the JCOGS Darchei Shalom cemetery on June 10.

Greta Joy was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1928. Her parents, Sidonya and Ben Rous, indelibly imbued her with the values of honesty, humor, and humility (whereas her younger sister Nita filled her childhood with fun and her adult years with nostalgia). In later life, Gretchen would express immense gratitude to her parents for sending her to Center Academy, a prominent Hebrew day school (though they themselves were non-religious), initiating her lifelong devotion to Jewish learning and heritage. And she would particularly credit her father for bringing her up to continually balance "brain and brawn," with the motto mens sana in corpore sano, "a healthy mind in a healthy body," dictating all her pursuits and passions throughout life.

On the academic side, Dr. Gretchen Besser's achievements began after she fell in love with the sound of the French language at Wellesley College. Upon graduation, she studied at the Sorbonne by earning a Fulbright scholarship during the program's first year of operation in France. Her year in Paris, where she was feted as an American by a populace still acclaiming its recent liberators, was among the most carefree of her life. Returning to the States, she was the first to receive an M.A. degree from Middlebury College's Graduate School of French, went on for her Ph.D. in French from Columbia University, taught French Language and Literature at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Columbia, Lehman College, and Rutgers University, authored scholarly books on French novelists Honoré de Balzac, Nathalie Sarraute, and Germaine de Staël, and wrote countless articles and book reviews in the field of French literature.

On the athletic side, Gretchen ardently embraced hiking, tennis, horseback riding, and especially skiing, which she adored for its exhilarating combination of dancing and defying gravity. She was moved to join the National Ski Patrol when she once witnessed a child getting hurt under the chairlift at Smugglers (then Madonna). A second motto, this one borrowed from Wellesley, non ministrari sed ministrare, "not to be served but to serve," inspired thousands of volunteer hours over the course of her forty-year career with the NSP. Calling on her writing talents, Gretchen published a seminal history of the organization, Samaritans of the Snow, after being appointed as its first official historian. Gretchen received numerous awards for her service to the ski industry, culminating in her induction into the inaugural class of the National Ski Patrol Hall of Fame in 2013 and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2016—but no accolade compared to the joy of tracing first tracks in several inches of fresh powder as a member of Stowe's famed "Dawn Patrol."

Gretchen met her future husband, Al, through her college friend, Edith, Al's younger sister. Ironically, a summer weekend of golf on Nantucket kindled their romance—ironically, because once they were married, they never returned to the ocean nor took up golf again, preferring instead to ski in the mountains of Vermont. They fell in love with their Morrisville property driving along Stagecoach Road one Columbus Day weekend and spotting "the knoll" ablaze with color, never imagining that a mere vacation house would eventually become their treasured home into old age. Though they raised their sons, James, Neal, and Brian, in New Jersey, they instilled in each of the three boys strong attachments to Vermont by creating for them carefree memories of summer hiking and winter skiing. Throughout their 68 years, Gretchen and Al shared many of the same things: not just pleasures, such as skiing and playing with their dogs, but priorities, such as devotion to family (which encompassed taking pride in their children's various accomplishments and supporting them in their challenges), love of Vermont and a commitment to their local Vermont community, and, similarly, loyalty to the Jewish people and a commitment their local Jewish community wherever they resided (which is why they supported the fledgling Jewish Community of Greater Stowe as founding members after retiring full-time to the area in 1997).

Gretchen recognized how much her life was shaped by being born a girl in a patriarchal society. Her sensitivity to prejudice against women made her all the more determined to break glass ceilings, whether by earning her Ph.D. despite expectations placed upon her to stay home and raise the children, or by showing the guys that she could pull a heavy toboggan down the slopes as capably as the strongest among them (and with more compassion for its occupant). Gretchen appreciated that her husband Al supported her professional ambitions, even though he too required a gentle admonition on occasion that we live in a man's world. Another of Gretchen's virtues is her love for "all creatures great and small" (with the exception of crawling insects, perhaps). Gretchen's concern for animal welfare eventually led her to adopt a vegetarian diet. For decades, she and Al raised dalmatians as cherished members of the household, and Gretchen personally cared for her beloved horse, Chino, until he died.

Judaism shaped Gretchen's identity more than any other factor. Her love of learning (she was a voracious reader), her love of languages (she was fluent in five), and her care with words (she labored over choosing just the right vocabulary even for mundane emails)—these all stem from the Jewish emphasis on proper speech and education. Gretchen's faith in God enabled her to approach the inevitabilities of aging with unusual grace, acceptance, and serenity. She woke up every single morning with the traditional prayer of gratitude on her lips for a new day of life, and she would not retire at night without enumerating at least one "mitzvah" (good deed) she had performed during the day. A final motto, this time in Hebrew not Latin, aptly sums up the entirety of Gretchen's existence: "surely goodness and lovingkindness shall pursue me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in God's house in the fullness of days."

Dr. Gretchen Rous Besser was pre-deceased by her parents Ben and Sidonya Rous, sister Nita Manitzas, husband Albert, and son James. She is mourned by sons Neal and Brian, son-in-law Joseph Bocchino, extended family, and countless friends, all of whom will remember her joy, laughter, and goodness.