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- The Burlington Free Press
December 31, 2011
Alice McLaren Fisher Cook Bassett
(Picture included)
Alice McLaren Fisher Cook Bassett - Adamant - Alice McLaren Fisher Cook Bassett died at home with family on December 28, 2011. She was 86 years old and had been a resident of Wake Robin Retirement Community in Shelburne since 1993. Born in 1925 in Lyndonville, the daughter of Clayton Fisher (1894-1987) and Alberta Campbell Fisher (1903-1981), Alice grew up in New London, New Hampshire, and Lyndonville. Her parents taught chemistry and music at Colby (now Colby-Sawyer) Junior College. Alice graduated from Colby, and on May 21, 1944, she married Clinton Dana Cook II, the son of a St. Johnsbury builder and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Clint worked as a chemist for GE during World War II. He earned a M.S. degree from UVM and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. When he died in 1969, he was Vice President for Academic Affairs at UVM; the Cook Physical Sciences Building is named for him. Alice, a homemaker and mother of five all of whom survive: Dana of Toronto, Canada; Allison of Northampton, Massachusetts; Polly of Portland, Oregon; Tim of South Portland, Maine; and Cindy of Adamant. Their families have gone on to produce ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, with another on the way. Widowed at age 44, Alice went back to school, earning a B.A. from UVM in 1971. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in recognition of academic excellence, and worked as manager of the Shakespeare Festival, a position she enjoyed thoroughly. In 1977, Alice met Thomas Day Seymour Bassett, a retired UVM history professor and archivist. Both sang in the choir at College Street Congregational Church. With mutual enthusiasms which included hiking, canoeing, gardening and music, they married in 1979. Tom died at age 87 in 2001. The author of several books on Vermont history, Tom Bassett was also a moving force in the Burlington Friends Meeting (Quakers). With encouragement from Tom and her father, and building on her experiences as a League of Women Voters activist in the 1960s, Alice Bassett ran for state representative in 1983. As a Democrat in Burlington's Ward One district, a liberal bastion, she won hands down, spending the munificent sum of $51 in her first campaign. She held the seat until 1992. She asked that the photo she used in that campaign be used with this obituary. An ardent environmentalist, Alice served on the House Natural Resources Committee. She was particularly proud of her role in getting Burlington's run-down waterfront transformed into a park enjoyed by thousands. She also took pride in the civility of the legislative community of which she was a part. She took on leadership roles in a number of areas of interest including music, environmental and peace-related causes, and the governance of her church and the Wake Robin community. In all these roles, it was very important to her to engage with issues in ways that respected the views of others. She asks that any donations in her memory be made to the Nature Conservancy. A memorial service will be held at the College Street Congregational Church on Saturday, January 14, 2012, at 10 a.m. with a reception tollowing at Wake Robin.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1925 - 2011 (86 years)