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45 Facts About Frederick Lippitt

1.

Frederick Lippitt was an American military officer, attorney, politician, public servant and philanthropist.

2.

Frederick Lippitt served in the Rhode Island House of Representatives.

3.

Frederick Lippitt was the scion of a distinguished Rhode Island colonial family, the son of United States Senator Henry F Lippitt and Lucy Hayes Herron Lippitt.

4.

Frederick Lippitt was the grandson of Governor Henry Lippitt and the nephew of Governor Charles Warren Lippitt.

5.

Frederick Lippitt was a cousin of United States Senator John Chafee and Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee.

6.

Frederick Lippitt then attended Yale Law School where he joined the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.

7.

Frederick Lippitt's studies were interrupted by his service in the US Army during World War II.

8.

Frederick Lippitt took a leave of absence from Yale Law School and enlisted in the United States Army on August 6,1941, four months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

9.

Frederick Lippitt saw service on the island of New Caledonia with the Americal Division in 1942.

10.

Frederick Lippitt was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Field Artillery on October 20,1942.

11.

Frederick Lippitt was promoted to the rank of 1st lieutenant by the end of the war and was promoted to captain on December 10,1945.

12.

Frederick Lippitt was discharged from active duty in 1946 and joined the Rhode Island National Guard on August 5,1947.

13.

Frederick Lippitt was promoted to major on February 2,1953 and served for ten years as the commander of the 103d Field Artillery Battalion.

14.

Frederick Lippitt was promoted to lieutenant colonel on February 19,1957 and retired from the National Guard in 1965, after a total of 24 years of military service.

15.

Frederick Lippitt retired from the firm when he entered the 1984 special election for Mayor of Providence.

16.

Frederick Lippitt served as a trustee of Rhode Island Hospital from 1954 to 1996.

17.

Frederick Lippitt was a trustee of the Rhode Island School of Design.

18.

Frederick Lippitt consistently advocated fiscal discipline and the protection of the rights of minorities.

19.

In November 1960, Frederick Lippitt was elected as a state representative in the Rhode Island General Assembly, representing a district which encompassed the College Hill neighborhood of Providence.

20.

Frederick Lippitt served eleven two year terms as a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1961 to 1983, including ten years as House Minority Leader.

21.

Frederick Lippitt was noted for his influence in the passage of the Rhode Island Fair Housing Act of 1968 and for his unsuccessful opposition to the imposition of a state income tax in 1970.

22.

Frederick Lippitt lost each election - the last two times by margins of less than 320 votes.

23.

In 1982, Frederick Lippitt did not seek re-election as a state representative but, instead, ran as a Republican for Mayor of Providence.

24.

Frederick Lippitt finished third to Cianci, who ran as an independent, and Democrat Francis Darigan.

25.

Frederick Lippitt entered the race as an independent, running against Paolino, State Representative Keven McKenna and businessman Emmanuel Torti.

26.

Frederick Lippitt narrowly lost the election to Paolino by 129 votes.

27.

In 1985, Frederick Lippitt was appointed as the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Administration by the newly elected Republican governor, Edward DiPrete and served in the position until 1988.

28.

In 1989, Frederick Lippitt was appointed by Providence Mayor Joseph Paolino, whom Frederick Lippitt ran against in the 1984 special election, as a judge on the Providence Housing Court.

29.

In 1990, at the age of 73, Frederick Lippitt ran again as an independent for Mayor of Providence.

30.

Frederick Lippitt was narrowly defeated by Cianci, who was permitted to run for office again after serving a five-year suspended sentence.

31.

Frederick Lippitt served Chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Elementary and Secondary Education for several years prior to his death.

32.

Frederick Lippitt never married and lived with his sister, Mary Ann Lippitt, a pilot who founded her own aviation company after the Second World War.

33.

Mary Ann Frederick Lippitt took the first nurse's aide class offered by the Rhode Island Red Cross when she was still a teenager.

34.

Frederick Lippitt competed in the "Powder Puff Derby" - transcontinental race for women pilots.

35.

Frederick Lippitt served as the Chairman of the Board of the Rhode Island Red Cross and as a board member for numerous other non-profits.

36.

Frederick Lippitt was elected as an honorary member of the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati in 1972.

37.

Frederick Lippitt became a hereditary member of the Society in 1989 after the death of a cousin who held the "seat" in the Society for Lippitt's great great great grandfather, Captain Charles Lippitt.

38.

Frederick Lippitt was a member of the prestigious Hope Club in Providence and the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.

39.

Frederick Lippitt died at the age of 88 at his home in Providence on May 11,2005.

40.

Frederick Lippitt was buried near his parents in the Lippitt family plot in the Swan Point Cemetery.

41.

Mary Ann Frederick Lippitt died in 2006 and was buried beside him.

42.

On January 19,2006 Frederick Lippitt was posthumously inducted by Mayor of Providence David Cicilline into the Reverend Martin Luther King Hall of Fame.

43.

The late Frederick Lippitt was a longtime advocate of civil rights and equality.

44.

Frederick Lippitt championed the cause of women and minority business owners as Director of Administration, and as the Chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, Lippitt pushed for diversity among the regents and worked to improve the quality of life for students.

45.

The nomination letter credits Frederick Lippitt for helping the poor and disenfranchised and said Frederick Lippitt 'made a sustained commitment to Providence, a city he was unabashedly in love with.