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Judy Foldes Dickson, 1945 - 2023. In sorrow and in admiration...

Obituary: Judith Dickson, 1945-2023 
Burlington lawyer fought for civil rights, social justice and was a relentless advocate for young people

Published July 11, 2023 in Vermont local newspaper Seven Days

Judith F. Dickson, 77, died Thursday, July 6, 2023, at her home in Burlington, Vt., surrounded by her children and her beloved dog, Sadie. She died of congestive heart failure that had been plaguing her — but not stopping her! — for a number of years. In her final weeks, she had many visits from family members and dear lifelong friends.

Judy was born in Boston, Mass., on December 21, 1945, to Edith and Francis Foldes, Hungarian Jews who had immigrated to the U.S. in September 1941. She and her two sisters grew up in Pittsburgh, where Judy was a ball of energy as a child — twirling batons, practicing dance moves and playing tennis with her friends, and horseback-riding with her father. In high school, Judy was a star cheerleader and also began discovering political activism through her Unitarian Church youth group.

In 1963, Judy followed her older sister Eva to Connecticut College, graduating in 1967, and then attended the Harvard Graduate School of Education. After teaching at HeadStart in the Boston area for several years, Judy attended law school at Northeastern University. She met her husband, Don Dickson, when they were both grad students in Cambridge, Mass. They married in 1972, and Judy followed Don to Vermont after finishing law school in 1976. They settled down on Ledgemere Street in the “Five Sisters” neighborhood of Burlington, where they lived for over 40 years and raised their three children, Amy, David and Jeff.

Judy was a fighter. At the age of 19, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a disease that, at the time, did not leave many survivors. She persevered through college while undergoing radiation, but her cancer returned a year later. With her doctor father’s help, Judy enrolled in the first ever clinical trial for combination chemotherapy at the National Institutes of Health. This involved frequent flights from New England to D.C., on which Judy would attempt to keep up with her coursework between bouts of chemo-induced nausea. This treatment was ultimately successful,and gave Judy almost 60 more years, but the experimental doses of radiation and chemotherapy also resulted in slowly progressing damage to her heart and lungs that led to her cardiovascular disease later in life. [Note: Positron Emission Tomography (PET) was unfortunately not available in the 1960s. PET scans give precise 3-D imaging of cancerous cells. These coordinates are then programmed into an accelerator to focus beams of intense radiation onto cancerous cells without striking vital organs.]

Judy was also a fighter for civil rights and social justice. She spent the bulk of her legal career at Vermont Legal Aid, where she directed the Disability Law Project for over 25 years. Judy was a relentless advocate for young people, collaborating with schools and other agencies to meet the needs of each of her clients. Always ready to fight for the rights of her own kids too, in the late 1990s Judy co-founded Parents for Civil Unions, which helped lay the groundwork for same-sex marriage in Vermont. After retiring from Legal Aid, Judy put her legal expertise to work volunteering for the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, where she helped countless New Vermonters get green cards. Her identity as the child of immigrants made her passionately committed to helping others access the same opportunities. Judy was an active member of the Vermont Bar Foundation for many years and received the Vermont Bar Association’s Distinguished Pro Bono Service Award in 2013.

While juggling full-time work and a wide variety of volunteer service, Judy always had time for her family. She taught her children how to ski and spent countless winter weekends shepherding all three kids up and down the slopes. In the summers, Judy loved to spend time with her family in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, swimming with her kids and sisters in the ponds and walking the beaches. Judy was a fantastic cook and loved to spend time in the kitchen. In the last few years, Judy’s grandson, Jonah, always looked forward to baking cookies and scones with Grandma.

Judy also always had time for her friends. She stayed close with a number of classmates from elementary school through law school, while maintaining correspondence and taking trips with them throughout her life. In Vermont, many of her friendships were forged with a network of women who were carving out their career paths as a new generation of women lawyers, academics and politicians. Judy loved to read, and her multiple monthly book groups were a highlight of her social life for decades. Friends of Judy loved her wit, her big smile and her wry sense of humor. She suffered no fools, but she was always glad to talk, listen and laugh with a friend.

Judy is survived by her three children, Amy, David and Jeff Dickson; her grandson, Jonah Dickson; her sister and brother-in-law, Barbara and Richard Wolkowitz; and nieces and nephews, Nicholas and Emily Travers and Eva and Daniel Wolkowitz. She was predeceased by her husband of 48 years, Don Dickson, and her sister and brother-in-law, Eva and Jeff Travers.

The family wishes to thank the University of Vermont Home Health & Hospice, home helpers Deb Holonitch and Paula Willoquet, and the many friends whose visits brought joy and laughter to Judy’s last few years.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, August 12, 2023, at 3:30 p.m., at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 152 Pearl St., Burlington, VT.

Contributions in Judy’s memory may be made to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Vermont (formerly the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program), Emerge Vermont or the Vermont Bar Foundation.