Vivienne Robinson Garmon passed away on Thursday, June 3, 2021, at the age of 89. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts on March 31, 1932, the daughter of Benjamin and Gussie (Shyavitz) Robinson.
Vivienne graduated Lowell High School in 1949 and received an Associate Arts Degree from Westbrook College, in Portland, Maine in 1951 and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Boston University in 1953 with a major in Art History.
She was an Assistant Librarian at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and received her Master’s of Arts Degree from BU in 1956. Vivienne worked for the Lowell Sun newspaper as a proofreader for the 1956 Democratic and Republican Conventions and then as the head of the newspaper’s library.
Vivienne married her husband, Fredric, in 1956 and they moved to Wellesley in 1958.
She held offices in many organizations. She was a Charter member of the Wellesley-Weston chapter of Hadassah of which she was Membership and Life Membership Chairman and won awards for bringing in new members. She was also a member of The Friends of the Wellesley Library and served as Membership Chairman for several years. She and her husband were founding members of Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley and she was active in the Temple’s Sisterhood, serving as Membership Chairperson. She was a Life Member of Hadassah, as well as a Life Member of the Brandeis University National Women’s Committee. Because of her love of fine art, she led an art study course for the group called Museum Hopping and was also a volunteer teaching art appreciation in the Wellesley school system. She worked as an art consultant and served as a Docent in the Starr Art gallery at the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center in Newton for thirteen years.
Vivienne was a collector of art and travelled to many countries around the world to enrich her passion for art history.
She also loved music and sang in various choral groups throughout her school years. She began attending the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a subscriber in 1953 and it was there that she met her husband, Fredric. They continued attending the BSO together for many years. She was also an avid theater goer and together she and Fredric were benefactors of the Jewish Theater of New England.
Vivienne is survived by her daughter Linda Garmon of Needham, her son Paul Garmon of Arlington; grandchildren, Rachel and Amanda Albert, and Daniel and Joanna Garmon. She was predeceased by her husband Fredric and brother, Howard Robinson of Framingham.
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