Mom: January 7, 1929 - October 22, 2010

Photo: Ann Haskell, about 1976. Photo courtesy the estate of Ann Haskell.

Here's the obit for our mother; her husband, Dick, included the photo, which I had forgotten about.

Ann S. Haskell, 81, died peacefully in her sleep at home on 10/22/10. Survived by her husband, Richard Koepsell, her mother, Elizabeth Sullivan, and her three siblings, Paul (Blake) Sullivan (Fredericksburg, VA), Margaretta Smith (Ashburn, VA), and Glen Sullivan (Fredericksburg, VA). She is also survived by three of her four children: Constantine (Dean) Rasmussen (Ipswich, MA), Mark Haskell (Washington, DC) and Gretl Rasmussen (Brooklyn, NY), by two loving daughters-in-law, and by six grandchildren.

Ann was born in Washington, DC, in 1929 and grew up in Arlington, VA. While raising three children on her own, she was among the first women to graduate from Clemson University and was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Graduate Fellowship. She received her Doctorate with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964. She went on to teach at the English Department of the State University of New York at Buffalo, specializing in Chaucer and Medieval Life and Literature and in Children's Literature, for thirty-seven years. She was a mentor and advisor to hundreds of students whose lives and careers she enriched with her generosity and scholarship. Her many academic publications include the books, "Essays on Chaucer's Saints" and "A Middle English Anthology," which has been in print since 1969.

Ann wrote Op-Ed columns, personal essays, and articles on food and numerous other subjects for publications such as the Smithsonian, the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun and New York Times. She maintained a home in Provence in Southern France for forty years and she and her husband taught a program abroad on the Culture of Provence. Ann leaves friends in Western New York, Charlottesville, VA, and Provence, France. She thanks the Gynecological Cancer staff at the University of Virginia.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Caring for Creatures, or the Fluvanna SPCA.