Hampshire Mourns Former Biology Faculty Associate Lorna Coppinger
Lorna Lowry (Baxter) Coppinger, 88, of Montague, Massachusetts, died on March 30, 2025. She was predeceased by her husband and colleague, former Hampshire Professor of Biology Raymond P. Coppinger, to whom she was married for more than 60 years.
Lorna was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, and grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, close to the Lexington Common. She graduated with an A.B. cum laude in Slavic languages and literatures from Boston University, and earned an M.S. in wildlife biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
A constant in both Lorna and Ray’s life were dogs, starting with their first date and Ray’s dog, Smokey. While she and Ray were in graduate school, Ray put together and raced several teams of huskies while Lorna took photographs and wrote the first comprehensive book on the sport, The World of Sled Dogs (awarded Best Technical Book, 1977, Dog Writers Association of America).
Lorna worked as a faculty associate in biology at Hampshire, alongside Ray. Together, from 1977–86, at the College Farm Center, they formed the Livestock Guarding Dog Project as an Old World system of non-lethal control of livestock predators. This innovative program introduced Old World flock protection dogs to the New World.
They traveled to Europe to study and acquire livestock guarding dogs and, along with students at Hampshire College, they bred and placed over 2,000 puppies from their breeding program at Hampshire at farms in most of the U.S. and Canada. Within ten years, the use of livestock guarding dogs had been widely adopted by farmers and producers. The project at the College was a success, and with this widespread adoption, slowly phased out. Livestock guarding dogs are now commonplace on many farms in the U.S. and Canada, thanks to the work of Ray and Lorna and their students.
Lorna was a professional writer and editor, photographer, researcher, language aficionado, and wordsmith. She was loved by her students who often said, if it wasn’t for Lorna’s editing prowess and attention to the written word, their careers would not be the same. Lorna was soft spoken, precise with her grammar, and passionate about good writing. In addition to the first book on sled dogs, she wrote and edited several additional books with Ray on dog behavior, evolution, and biology, and numerous newspaper, journal and magazine articles.
Lorna loved Red Sox Baseball, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, crossword puzzles, and a good book to read. She was a scholar of WWII and of Winston Churchill.
In addition to Ray, Lorna was predeceased by her sister Ann Soule. She is survived by children, Karyn and Timothy; grandchildren Isabelle, Josephine, and Tai; and her brother Larry Baxter.
Family was a priority for Lorna who had “Gran Day” on Wednesdays, half-days when she cared for her three grandchildren. She lived at the farm where she and Ray hosted many students for research projects and meals and, more recently, as an extended family with her son Tim and his wife Lise, grandson Tai and (of course) a dog, Tia. She is sorely missed by all.
Details on a celebration of Lorna’s life will be announced at a later date.
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