Claire Wilson DePalma
Claire Wilson DePalma, wife of John T. DePalma, died Jan. 27 surrounded by family and friends, after a brief illness.
Daughter of the late Lloyd Macy Wilson and Barbara Tompkins Wilson, she was born June 15, 1949 in Paris, France.
Mrs. DePalma was a graduate of Darien High School. She attended Colorado Women’s College and earned her bachelor’s degree at Mississippi University for Women.
Claire was an adept business woman whose employers included Raytheon Corporation in Jeda, Saudi Arabia and Control Data in Greenwich, Conn., her family said. She also spent time as the volunteer treasurer of The Darien Nature Center, an organization that was founded by her father. She was a partner of Alden Associates and 121 West Main Associates, both of Milford, Conn.
Mrs. DePalma volunteered at both Greenwich and Milford Hospitals and with the youth mentor program of the Bridges Organization of Milford. She was an avid gardener and especially loved traveling with her husband to visit with family.
She was an inexhaustible champion of education and learning for all of the young people whose lives she influenced, her family said. Her greatest triumphs include an installation of reading, writing, vocabulary and learning that will live on in her nieces, nephews and stepgrandchildren; an installation that will serve them all for the rest of their lives by making them clearer, more particular, more specific thinkers and communicators.
Besides her husband, she is survived by her sister, Barbara Wilson Smith; brothers, Bruce Tompkins Wilson, Douglas Osbourne Wilson, and Lloyd Dennis Wilson; nieces and nephews, Adrienne, Celeste and Arthur Wilson; Hope East, Julia Rhodes and Dennis and Keith Wilson; Margaret, Jeffery and Wilson Smith; Michael and Elizabeth Wilson; stepchildren, John T. DePalma Jr., Lydia Gates, Kathleen Anderson, Marianne Capozzi; and grandchildren, Kelly DePalma, Joseph Anderson II, Kathleen Anderson and Samantha Capozzi.
Services were private. A memorial celebration is planned for late spring.
Memorial contributions may be made to Bridges Organization, 949 Bridgeport Ave., Milford, CT 06460.
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