Diane Lake Northrop passed away December 22, 2022 at age 90 in Needham MA, having dedicated her long life to mathematics and teaching, music, more than 45 years of public service to her beloved Town of Glastonbury CT, and some 72 years of loyal devotion to Brown University.

The only child of William and Betty Lake, Diane was born April 25, 1932 in New Haven and raised in Orange CT, with many cousins nearby. She became first in her extended family to attend college, enrolling at Pembroke College in Brown University on a scholarship. Thus began her lifelong connection with Pembroke women and Brown: at 18 she and her freshman roommate Jane O'Hara Page forged a deep friendship that continued through her very last days. Unusual for her time, she majored in Actuarial Mathematics, graduating in 1954. She earned an M.Ed. from the University of Hartford in 1970, and later studied Taxation.

After college, Diane worked as an actuarial clerk for New England Mutual Life and then at MIT Lincoln Laboratory as a staff mathematician. While home with her children for 12 years, she served on the board of their Montessori schools. Then she began teaching math in the West Hartford Public Schools, first at Plant Junior High, and then at Hall High School, where she led thousands of students through algebra, geometry and calculus, wrote hundreds of highly personalized college recommendations, and always held herself and each of her students to high standards. Retiring from WHPS in 1992, she next taught for 9 years as a visiting lecturer in math at Trinity College in Hartford, and even volunteered in the Glastonbury High School Math Lab. Throughout she always championed girls learning mathematics and finance and aspiring to whatever they want to be and do in their careers.

Diane was an alto choral singer from high school onward into her eighties, from the Pembroke Glee Club and Brown Chapel Choir to CONCORA in Connecticut. She was a Bach aficionado and avid musical learner, frequently attending choral workshops and intensive performance weekends. She adored live music and attended the Hartford Symphony and the BSO at Tanglewood for decades, often with very special friend groups with whom she shared dinner before concerts. Diane supported many cultural organizations in central Connecticut, and sat on the CONCORA Board for a dozen years from 2001.

Diane believed in community service and active participation in democratic processes and civic engagement. Glastonbury was both her home and her cause, and when the family moved there in 1967 she began decades of volunteer commitment to education, town governance and development, and community organizations, including the League of Women Voters and the Glastonbury Republican Town Committee. Diane served on the Board of Trustees of the Welles-Turner Memorial Library (becoming its president), and also on the Connecticut Association of Library Boards. An ardent feminist, she was very active in the local and Connecticut Republican party, often declaring she was "a Glastonbury Republican, which means being fiscally conservative and socially liberal." In 1973 Diane was elected to the town's Board of Finance, on which she served for 42 years, and of which she was Chair or Vice-Chair for nearly 39 years. She was proud of the bipartisanship and fiscal responsibility of the Board and its working relationships with the Town Manager, Town Council, and Board of Education (and often touted Glastonbury's AAA bond rating). In 2015, when she stepped down at the age of 83, the Town celebrated her for having "always worked for the best long-term interest of the Glastonbury community with thoughtfulness, foresight, respect, integrity, understanding, and a sense of humor."

Diane was one of a group of alumnae who championed the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University, actively sitting on its Associates Advisory Council for more than 20 years, and maintaining interest in its mission and progress even into her last months. Diane was "Ever True to Brown" in a multitude of ways: fundraising, interviewing college applicants, serving on alumni committees, planning class reunions, advocating for the Pembroke Center, and traveling with fellow Brunonians all over the world. In 1994 she proudly received the Brown Bear Award for her service as "a woman duly qualified for discharging the offices of life with usefulness and reputation." She regularly visited the Brown campus, and was thrilled to attend her 65th reunion in 2019 with close friends.

After living in Glastonbury nearly 51 years, Diane moved to the North Hill Retirement Community in 2018, where she reunited with friends Jane and Dick Page. While battling the ravages of Parkinson's Disease, she participated in a residents' council and enjoyed any concert she could attend on the North Hill campus or in Boston at Symphony Hall. Though her vision failed, she nonetheless attentively listened to full articles read from The Glastonbury Citizen to her every week (especially those on town finance and governance), along with Pembroke Center reports, and news of her grandchildren and great-grandson.

Diane is survived by daughter Melanie and son Dana and his wife Kristen. Diane was deeply proud of her grandchildren Rachel (Robert), Sarah (Alistair) and Rebecca Forman, and E.J., Will (Gabby) and John Northrop. In October Diane delightedly became great-grandmother to Grayson Forman Kuczarski. She steadfastly loved her cousins Nancy Root Doheny and Betty-Lou Root Morawski and their families. She was also especially blessed by 72 years of knowing Jane O'Hara Page, and countless friends with whom she was connected through Brown, in Glastonbury, while teaching in West Hartford, and through music. Her family is grateful to North Hill and its Pines Edge Skilled Nursing Facility for its care and kindnesses over nearly five years, and especially its valiant work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Family and friends are invited to celebrate her life during a Memorial Gathering on Monday, April 10th from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at the Glastonbury Boathouse, with a Time of Remembrance at 2 pm.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Diane's memory to the Welles-Turner Memorial Library Second Century Fund at P.O. Box 82, 2407 Main Street, Glastonbury CT 06033, or the Pembroke Center at Brown University https://pembroke.brown.edu/

Arrangements are under the care of Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, MA.