Winnifred E. Levy ’81

Winnifred E. Levy ’81 died on June 20, 2015, in Washington, D.C., after a valiant battle with multiple sclerosis. Winni was born on April 9, 1958, in Mandeville, Jamaica. She was raised in N.Y.C. and quickly excelled at school. Her love of learning and quest to be successful and independent led her to Dartmouth. From her first day it was a campus where Winni would always feel at home and to which she would periodically return. Her natural instinct to question and challenge was allowed free reign in her coursework and she studied with passion, traveled to Spain and made lifelong friends. After graduating with an English major she began a long and successful career in journalism, which included stints at YSB magazine, Black Entertainment Television, Capitol Hill and the Aspen Institute. Along the way she obtained a law degree from Case Western Reserve University. The defining part of Winni’s life was being a mother to David J. Robertson Jr. Her life took on a new meaning as she raised him as a single mother following her divorce. Winni leaves a living legacy of family, friends and beloved memories of Dartmouth. Activist and author Maya Angelou might well have been speaking of Winni when she said, “There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in black women. It’s as if a steel rod runs right through the head down to the feet.”