Susan P. Tippett, an advocate for children and social justice issues who was a founder of the Maryland Food Committee, died of respiratory failure Tuesday at Roland Park Place. She was 92.
Described in a newspaper article "as one of the most knowledgeable persons in the state about hunger and related problems," she led a movement that successfully expanded meals at public schools.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville, she was the daughter of Dr. Maurice C. Pincoffs, a University of Maryland internist, and Katharine Brune Randall. She was a 1939 graduate of Roland Park Country School and earned a bachelor's degree in history with honors at Vassar College. She was also a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
Family members said she became interested in public health issues. In the 1940s, she became a public health nurse of the staff of what is now the University of Maryland Medical Center.
In the 1960s she and her husband, attorney J. Royall Tippett Jr., participated in a census of Roman Catholic residents of Baltimore, during which they visited numerous homes.
"It was an eye-opening experience for them to see the level of hunger in the city," said a daughter, Sue Tippett of Pelham, Mass.
Not long after, she showed a documentary about hunger at a Sunday school class at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, where she was a member. The students expressed their concerns but said, " 'What can we do? We are just kids,' " said another daughter, Dr. Ann Nutt of Norwell, Mass.
For Mrs. Tippett, the Sunday school discussion was a transforming event.
"I think she was just ready to hear what the kids said. It was the 1960s. She had just converted to Catholicism. She was fervent. It was a fit for her. It really worked," said Dr. Nutt, a pediatrician who works in Dorchester, Mass.
Mrs. Tippett became a founder of the Maryland Food Committee, a grass-roots organization she ran from her Keswick Road home in Roland Park. The committee initially solicited funds through churches and synagogues.
"She was scared of the public appearances she had to make," said her daughter, Sue Tippett, a social worker. "But she was determined and operated day-to-day from our home. The phone rang 24/7. We'd often say, 'It's probably the governor's office again.' "
In 1969 she staged a hunger banquet at the 5th Regiment Armory to raise funds and draw attention to her mission. Some 800 persons attended, including Sen. Joseph D. Tydings and former Gov. Theodore R. McKeldin. The event, which featured a dinner of beef stew and coleslaw, raised $22,000.
"She was drawn into a city task force examining what children eat," according to a 1976 Evening Sun article. "The kids were hungry and [she] said, 'Let's feed them.' City statistics that year [1969] showed that 100,000 public school children ate only one full meal a day."
While some federal money was available for school meals, she found that most urban schools lacked kitchens and could not serve lunch. The students were sent home to eat. "They probably didn't go home for the most part because their parents weren't home and there wasn't anything to eat,'" Mrs. Tippett said.
In 1971, she testified at an Annapolis hearing that the state had an "inordinately high rates of infant mortality and premature birth," according to a Baltimore Sun article.
"'Poverty-level diets represent a hideous social cost,'" Mrs. Tippett said at the hearing.
Ms. Nutt said, "My mother came from a prominent medical family. People were bound to listen to her. She was not afraid to talk about the ugly truth of hunger in America at a time when people did not discuss unpleasant things."
The 1976 Evening Sun article described her as a "stately woman in her 50s who has a reputation for phenomenal persistence."
"It is Susan Tippett who in countless meetings has pleaded the case for the poor in the face of bureaucracies," the article read. "City and state officials listen, sometimes attempt to disagree and then sit back to hear her informed assessment."
She worked through the Baltimore City schools and had a contract that required the schools to provide the extra lunches and to apply for additional federal funds.
After working on public nutrition issues, she turned her attention to heating for the poor. She joined Catholic Charities as its supervisor of social concerns and testified before the Maryland Public Service Commission about winter heat cutoff rules for those who could not afford to pay utility bills.
Mrs. Tippet was also active in housing issues. She led an effort to renovate 10 houses on Cator Avenue in the Pen-Lucy neighborhood.
A funeral Mass will be offered at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5200 N. Charles St.
In addition to her two daughters, survivors include her son, Jade Tippett of Ukiah, Calif.; a niece, Kathy Pincoffs of Edgewater; and five grandchildren. Her husband of 53 years died in 2003.