Barbara Ripley

Barbara was born October 9, 1938 in Augusta Maine to parents Lola Redmond Ripley and Charles Bryant Ripley and sister Juanita. Barbara lived many lifetimes over the course of her almost 80 years. Barbara graduated from Cony High School in 1957. She was a star athlete in high school. While playing baseball with the boys, she thoroughly enjoyed picking which gymnasium window she would hit out during her turn at bat. Immediately after graduation, Barbara joined the Navy. Barbara was most proud of her time in the Navy as an aerographer's mate studying weather and weather balloons. This sparked a lifelong love of weather-related matters. After the Navy Barbara returned to Augusta, gave birth to her daughter, Lorrie and spent many years working. Barbara knew how to fix everything, she gardened, canned, baked, cooked, sewed, crafted, fashioned floorboards for cars from sheet-metal and pop rivets, and fixed mufflers with Campbell's tomato soup cans. She was generally adept at everything she tried. Barbara spent many months at one point creating a life-size realistic parrot of many colors constructed from individual petals cut from artificial flowers. Barbara always had many big ideas and a great love of animals. During the early 1980s, the Fund for Animals began to rescue wild burros from the Grand Canyon. Barbara had everyone she knew 99.9% convinced that it would be a great idea to help the animal rescue and wanted to adopt one of the burros. She almost talked her sister into boarding the burro in her sister's basement. Nobody would have been surprised if a burro had been delivered at any point.
When Barbara was 40, she decided to seek more education and obtained her Associates and then Bachelor's Degree in Business from the University of Maine at Augusta. Thereafter she discovered a new interest in career counseling particularly for displaced homemakers. Barbara helped many non- traditional students return to college and successfully pursue higher education. Barbara furthered her new interest in career counseling by pursuing a Master's Degree in education and counseling from the Keene State College in 1990. As was the standard in Barbara's life, she did not end up where she had originally planned. She did end up counseling elementary school students in Farmington New Hampshire for many years. Barbara had fun while she helped a lot of children and their families. She was always up to help a child with a musical number in the school talent show, assist with community projects, or fill gaps in students' lives, always unbeknownst to them. She spent countless hours every summer sorting, laundering, and repairing lost and found items to prepare clothes for the upcoming school year when children would have emergencies and need fresh clothes during the school day. She also spent much of her own money over the years and donated anonymously to children who did not have basic essentials. Barbara was always generous of spirit and resource and would have given everything she had to somebody more down on their luck or needing a hand.
Most recently, Barbara has spent her time in the company of friends at Whitaker Place and enjoyed time in her own space surrounded by everything that she loved. She amassed quite the collection of flamingos, animal books and dog pictures in recent years. She was always the fiercest advocate for the most under of the underdogs. This quality was true for her entire life. Barbara never missed a dog show on animal planet and her most favorite show in recent years has been Pit Bulls and Parolees.
Over the last few weeks, no doubt that there has been a large gathering at the Rainbow Bridge where Roger, Zoey, Clovis, Bayley, & Zradda (among others) have been waiting for Barbara to arrive.
Her daughter Lorrie Ripley, daughter-in-law Arthoen Wolf, Margaret Heiderman, & Aven, survive Barbara. Her sister Nita Storer, nephew Peter Hastings & family, niece Kathy Husa & family, special niece Wendy Shaw & family, dear friends Carla, Pat, Mary Lou, Mary Ann, Lorraine, and countless others also survive her. Condolences may be sent to bjripley215@gmail.com.
In lieu of flowers, please donate in Barbara's memory to Villalobos Rescue Center whose mission is to help all dogs with a focus on pit bulls. VRC also employees parolees because as founder Tia Torres says -all of us deserve another chance. No donation is too small. Donations accepted online at www.vrcpitbull.com or by check: Villalobos Rescue Center, P.O. Box 77112, New Orleans, LA. 70177.
We will celebrate mass on August 20, 2018 at 10:30 AM at Christ the King Church on S. Main St, Concord, NH followed by a graveside service at noon at the NH Veteran's Cemetery in Boscawen, NH.