HIU Mourns Loss of Anne Rapkin '16; Church Plans Memorial Service

Anne Rapkin '16, a lawyer who became a chaplain later in life and continued to audit HIU courses right up until this semester, was tragically hit by a car while walking her dog in West Hartford on Wednesday, Nov. 27. She passed away shortly after the accident.

Bike West Hartford planned a vigil on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 6 p.m. at the corner of Sedgwick Road and Cornell Road in West Hartford. The vigil is a way to memorialize Anne and to recognize that "any fatality or serious injury on our roadways is one too many."

A memorial service is also planned for Saturday, Dec. 14, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Hartford, beginning at 10 a.m. Anne had been very active at the church through its work resettling Afghan refugees. 

After spending 30 years as a lawyer, Anne decided to pursue chaplaincy and began Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at UConn's John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington, CT. While there, she learned about a class called Building Abrahamic Partnerships taught by Professor Yehezkel Landau. 

“I was so intrigued and moved by [BAP] that I decided [Hartford Seminary] was the place for me,” Anne said in 2015 for a story on HIU's website. She applied for and was accepted to the MA in Religious Studies with a focus in Scriptural Studies and graduated in 2016.

Anne worked as a chaplain at the Hebrew Home and Hospital in West Hartford with mostly geriatric and disabled patients. She described her job this way: “Sometimes someone just needs a little companionship. Sometimes someone needs to talk about their relationship with God. Sometimes they want someone to pray with." 

Anne, who was 74, continued to take courses at HIU as a auditor and was enrolled this semester in Dr. David D. Grafton's class "Interrogating Abraham: Examining Intersections between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam."

"Anne was an important part of our class community," Dr. Grafton said. "She was always self-reflective and intuitive in her comments. Our first class together without her this week was hard and disorienting. One of her classmates, who sat next to her, came in and made sure no one sat in that seat. 'That is Anne's place,' he said. There will always be a place for her. Even in death our students show respect and care for one another."