San Diego (special) -- Philanthropist Dorris Lipinsky, who along with her husband, Bernard, was a major contributor to San Diego's Jewish community and to San Diego State University, died of cancer early Saturday morning, Feb. 13, at Alvarado Hospital. She was 76.

Her death, following a brief coma, came less than a month before the scheduled March 8 opening by San Diego Hebrew Homes of the Lipinsky Administration Building at Seacrest Village-Encinitas, only the latest in a long list of charities for which she will be remembered. The family also had donated the administration building at the old 54th Street campus of the Hebrew Home, now the privately-owned Jacob Health Care Center.

Dorris and Bernard Lipinsky also were regular contributors to such activities as the Jerusalem Foundation, Agency for Jewish Education, and the San Diego Jewish Film Festival. The latter opened last Tuesday with a Lipinsky-sponsored retrospective of the works of German filmmaker Michael Verhoeven. At San Diego State University, the couple founded the Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies, which ironically held its long-scheduled Glickman Galinson symposium on current affairs in Israelat Temple Emanu-El last Sunday, the same day Mrs. Lipinsky was buried at Greenwood Cemetery.

DORRIS AND BERNARD LIPINSKY

Lawrence Baron, director of the institute, led the gathering in a moment of silence in her memory, explaining that almost at that very moment funeral services were being conducted for Mrs. Lipinsky by Temple Emanu El's spiritual leader, Rabbi Martin S. Lawson. Light shone on the assembly through stained glass windows donated by the Lipinskys for the Reform congregation's sanctuary.

Baron said Dorris Lipinsky helped found the institute in 1985 after state funding for educational programs had been cut. "They assured the success of the program by hiring two full-time faculty through their generous donation," he said. 

In addition to the Lipinsky Institute, Dorris and her husband are the namesakes of the Lipinksy Tower on the SDSU campus. The couple founded the Lipinsky Scholarship fund, which has awarded 298 scholarships at SDSU, and also financed the Thomas B. Day Freshman Success Program in which faculty members tutor students who are having difficulties in their first year. SDSU also named the Lipinsky Hospitality Center for them.

The couple also took pride in their sponsorship for many seasons of the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre and the Old Globe Theater and in their contributions to the San Diego Zoological Society.

Tributes to Dorris Lipinsky's life were fast in coming as news of her death spread last weekend. 

"Dorris and Bernard have been great friends of San Diego State University," said SDSU president Stephen Weber. "Their gifts have had a wonderful impact on our campus and its students. They both had a very nice sense of social responsibility, a very good perspective about that; they were just genuinely philanthropists."

Dr. Cecile Jordan, executive director of the Agency for Jewish Education, described Dorris as having been "keenly interested in education. She and Bernard supported the Lipinsky Back to School workshop for a number of years, and additionally supported scholarships at the High School for Jewish Studies and a leadership program at the high school."

The Lipinsky Back to School Workshop is conducted each year before the September opening day of school for approximately 200 teachers who work both in Jewish day schools and supplemental schools.

"She was an example to the community," commented Michael Ellentuck, executive director of San Diego Hebrew Homes. "She was responsible in large part for the development of the community; she was active in her temple, at the Hebrew Home, and the university. She continued to give and asked nothing in return."

"I remember the first film that they underwrote was The Shvitz. , when we were still at Sherwood Hall," recalled Joyce Axelord, chair of the San Diego Jewish Film Festival. As the festival expanded to the 25-film, 10 day event that it is today, "I remember that Dorris was always very thoughtful about her involvement," Axelrod added. 

"Bernard respected her analysis and looked for her to provide insight. We're proud that her family will continue to be represented inasmuch as her granddaughter, Jane Segal, is on our committee."

Born Dorris Fagelson in Chicago on Sept. 27, 1921, Mrs. Lipinsky lived in Los Angeles where she was graduated from Los Angeles High School, and worked as a buyer for the May Company before moving to San Diego in 1951. 

She and Bernard both had lost their first spouses, and they were introduced by Bernard's former mother in law. They married 44 years ago. 

In addition to her husband of 44 years, her survivors (and their spouses) include son Jeffrey Lipinsky (Sheila); daughter Elaine Segal; brother Charles Fagelson (Barbara); five grandchildren: Jane Segal Shraga (Alex); Diane Segal, Daren Lipinsky, Steven Lipinsky and Nathan Segal; and two great-grandchildren, Noah Segal and Jordyn Esther Shraga, born just six weeks before Mrs. Lipinsky's death.

The family says dsonations in her memory may be made to the Lipinsky Scholarship Fund at SDSU, Lipinsky Institute of Judaic Studies at SDSU or the San Diego Hebrew Homes.