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Human Interest
MoB Fleet Captain George Criminalie
by Bill Culberson
George Criminale passed away today (July 6, 2007) at the age of 96. George is a Life member of the Star Class and has been sailing Stars in the Mobile Bay Star Fleet since almost its inception. He was the Fleet Captain when I joined the class and taught me much of what I know of the history of the Mobile Bay Fleet.
He is the only guy I knew who had a complete collection of every “Starlights” magazine had ever made. He was also a very active Buccaneer and Mobile Yacht Club Member. With his passing our fleet has been a bit diminished but through our memories of him we can realize some happiness and wish him well as he heads towards his ethereal weather mark.
I remember with great fondness so many of his stories and how his eyes came alive with excitement, even if I had heard the story a thousand times. When I was a wet behind the ears Star sailor it was once remarked to me “Here comes George, get ready to go to Cuba!”. I didn’t understand then, but I soon learned. I see that old picture of the Star boat shooting out of the waves in Havana and it reminds me of George every time. He will be missed.
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Edith R. Lippincott
from the Easton, Maryland newspaper
EASTON — Edith Ridley Lippincott of Easton, Maryland died Wednesday, June 27, 2007, at William Hill Manor, Easton. She was 90.
Born May 31, 1917, in Riverton, N.J., she was the daughter of the late George L. and Christine Washington Ridley. After attending grammar school in Riverton and high school in Moorestown, N.J., she graduated from Palmyra High School in Palmyra, N.J. She then attended Wellesley University in Massachusetts. Her husband, Robert L. Lippincott, whom she married April 11, 1942, died April 13, 1998. He was the 1950 Star Class World Champion Sailor.
She was a member of the Riverton Yacht Club and the Riverton Porch Club, Riverton, N.J., Church of The Holy Trinity, the Tred Avon Yacht Club, Oxford and vice president of Lippincott Marine located in Grasonville.
During her life, she traveled extensively throughout North America and Europe to many major sailing championship regattas with her husband and various other Maryland sailors and their wives throughout the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. She raced penguins in the 1950s, helping to teach her sons how to be better racers. From 1954 until the 1960s, she was the “First mate” aboard the family yacht Zeearend, a 55-foot Sparkman & Stevens-designed yawl that held the Annapolis-Oxford race course record from the late 1950s until broken by Running Tide in the late 1960s. Zeearend became host boat to many sailors and their families throughout the bay as it traveled from regatta to regatta throughout the summers.
Edith was a proud hostess aboard Zeearend, serving meals to as many as 50 sailors between races, towing as many as 38 boats at a time in from the race courses and presiding over many bridge and gin rummy card games being played on Zeearend’s decks by the various wives and girlfriends of the sailors during the races at Bay regattas. One steadfast guest over the years was The Baltimore Sun paper’s sailing reporter who delighted in joining Zeearend’s crew for the regattas and helping the ladies with their card games.
Edith gave tremendous support to her sons and their friends over the years whether in sailing, education and/or other sports activities.
Mrs. Lippincott is survived by four sons, Richard Lippincott and his wife, “Pucky,” of Oxford; Lt. Col. Robert Louis Lippincott Jr. (USAF Ret.) and his wife, Joann, of Poquoson, Va.; William R. Lippincott and his wife, Fay Jean, of Easton; and John H. Lippincott and his wife, Anne, of Ennis, Mont.; a sister, Christine Ridley of Easton; seven grandchildren, Stacey Seymour, Jennifer Lippincott, Ryan Lippincott, Bobby Lippincott, Mary Anne Lippincott, Johnny Lippincott and Ashley Lippincott; and two great-grandchildren, Robbie Seymour and Alex Seymour.
She was preceded in death by a son, James A. Lippincott, who died June 18, 2000, and a sister, Elizabeth Ridley, who died Feb. 23, 2004.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, July 9, at Holy Trinity Church in Oxford, Maryland. Burial will be private.
Memorial donations may be made to the American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula, 100 West 10th St., Suite 501, Wilmington, DE 19801, The Salvation Army, P.O. Box 91, Cambridge, MD 21613, or the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 11403 Cronhill Drive, Suite E, Owings Mills, MD 21117.
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