Obituary: Sally Deming Howe, 1944-2023

Sally Deming Howe, an avid athlete, musician, gardener, world traveler and retired guidance counselor in the Winooski school system, died on Saturday, April 8, at her home in South Burlington, Vt., surrounded by family. She was 78 years old. The cause was cancer.

Sally combined a love of the outdoors and adventure with an acute intellectual curiosity. She loved to be in motion and could rarely be found not engrossed in an activity. Her luminous vitality, the joyful power and grace with which she pursued her many enthusiasms, her warmth and humor, and the depth of her caring about the welfare of others are legendary among all who knew and loved her.

Born on July 19, 1944, Sally was the younger daughter of Joan Deming Howe and Paul Willard Howe, of Redding, Conn., where she grew up. On her mother’s side, she is a great-great-granddaughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Sally graduated from Joel Barlow High School in Redding, class of ’62, and from Vassar College, class of ’66. After college, she worked in New York City as a social worker. In 1968, she married Stephen W. Pollak and settled in Vermont, where she would spend the rest of her life. Sally and Steve had two sons, Seth and Noah. They divorced in 1991.

She earned her MEd in education and worked for three decades as a guidance counselor in the Winooski Public Schools. She traveled to Russia and Japan on teacher exchange programs. In 1992, she met Rick Hubbard, who would become her life partner and companion on many travels and other adventures.

Sally’s athletic achievements included prowess in horseback riding, running, triathlons, cross-country skiing, long-distance hiking and bicycling.

In 1994, she completed the New York City Marathon. A lover of outdoor adventure, Sally joined Rick in hiking large parts of the Appalachian Trail; 1,200 miles of the Pacific Coast Trail; and the GR5 trail in Europe from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean. Along with a group of friends, they hiked, bicycled and canoed many times in the Northeast and Canada.

They cross-country ski raced in masters age-level groups in Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Italy and Canada, and bicycled and hiked in England, Europe, Peru and New Zealand. Their most recent adventure, in the autumn of 2019, was a trek in the mountains of Nepal.

A fine amateur cellist, Sally delighted in playing music and performed for years in the string sections of the University of Vermont Orchestra, the Burlington Civic Symphony and with a string quintet of friends.

She sang in choruses in New York City, with the Aurora Chamber Singers of Burlington and at Temple Sinai in South Burlington, where she was an active member of the congregation.

Sally is survived by her 31-year life partner, Rick Hubbard; her two sons; her sister, Imogen Howe of Redding, Conn.; her niece, Katie Haddock of Brooklyn, N.Y.; two grandsons; several cousins; and many devoted friends.

There will be a celebration of her life for family and friends in Stowe, Vt., in early July and another in West Redding, Conn., in September.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Sally’s memory to any of the following organizations would be gratefully accepted: Temple Sinai, 500 Swift St., So. Burlington, VT 05403; Stowe Nordic, c/o George Jackman, 291 East Tamarack Rd., Stowe, VT 05672; Burlington Civic Symphony, PO Box 2005, So. Burlington, VT 05407; or Aurora Chamber Singers, PO Box 64753, Burlington, VT 05401.

This article appears in May 3-9, 2023.