Victoria (Smith) Read

Cherished UCONN Professor

Victoria S. Read

June 13, 1929 – May 29, 2017

Victoria Smith Read, 87, of Pomperaug Woods in Southbury, CT died at Yale New Haven Hospital on May 29th of complications from COPD. Victoria’s Minnesota roots remained with her throughout her life in Litchfield, Connecticut and Palm Springs, California. After graduation from Washburn High School in Minneapolis, Victoria earned her BA from Vassar College and taught English, with her husband, Howard Read, at North Country School in Lake Placid, NY.

After the Adirondacks, Victoria and Howard moved to Fairmont, Minnesota where they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Susan, and where Victoria worked at her favorite job as religion editor for The Fairmont Sentinel. Though she loved this job, she knew herself to be a natural educator, and she needed more intellectual stimulation.

Her prodigious intellect and disciplined habits of mind dictated the need for further education, so she returned to New England and earned an MAT from Wesleyan University.  She spent the remainder of her career as an English professor at UCONN (Waterbury branch) where she committed herself to the cultivation of her students whom she loved, respected, challenged, motivated, and encouraged to achieve their own happiness.

Victoria’s greatest strengths were as a conversationalist, a sharer of ideas, and an inspiration to all whom she encountered. Her late-in-life love of golf prompted her to “winter” in Palm Springs, California where she started the “Perky Putters”, developed elaborate intellectual relationships, participated in three book clubs, and swam every afternoon. In summer, Victoria returned to Litchfield to play golf and have lunch at her country club while pursuing wisdom through study of the classics and the roots of world religions. She had a knack for appreciating simple things though her understanding included the most complex of concepts.

At the end, what Victoria wanted most was to live quietly at Pomperaug Woods with Ramona Lallissoon looking after her. Victoria left this world surrounded by love and devotion.

She will be remembered for an uncommon generosity, a dauntless spirit, a creative mind, and impressive speeches. She is survived by her twin brother, Hugh Smith; her two daughters, Elizabeth McKee and Susan Read; and her grandchildren, Jeannette Estruth and Harrison Read.

Service: 2 p.m. Sunday June 25th Trinity Episcopal Church 536 Milton Road, Litchfield, CT Victoria’s ashes will be with her parents’ at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN

In lieu of flowers, please donate to North Country School (www.northcountryschool.org click on “giving”, then “online giving” and select NCS Scholarship fund).

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