Andrea Elizabeth Kirkman

Andrea (Andy) Kirkman of Riverside passed away on January 21, 2025 at the age of 90. Born in New York in 1934, Andy grew up in Havana, Cuba, where her father was head of Proctor & Gamble’s Havana office. She returned to the US at the age of twelve, fully bilingual with an international flare that would inspire her work and the perspectives of people whose lives she touched. She earned her B.A. Degree in Economics from Wellesley College in 1955 and later a M.A. in Teaching from Fairfield University. Andy was part of the generation of truly remarkable women who successfully navigated the transition from traditional notions of a women’s role in society to being able to do it all! And she did this brilliantly!

Andy was a loving wife to her husband Walter, mother to her three children, and grandmother to her six grandchildren. Together, Andy and Walter ensured that their children were imbued with a sense of purpose, an appreciation of education, music, the arts, and the importance of things larger than themselves. The love they shared for one another for over seventy years was an inspiration to all they touched, about what true love really means. At the same time, she had a fulfilling career starting as one of the first women in a professional position in economic research at the American Bankers Association. She was subsequently a Spanish teacher for twenty-four years in the Greenwich school system, retiring as a Master Teacher at Greenwich High School, where she inspired generations of students toward foreign language. At the high school, she also developed and instituted ‘Hispanic Parents Night’, which is still in place today, working to translate and address questions and make people feel comfortable coming to the high school. Outside the classroom, she continued to volunteer her time assisting the Hispanic community in Greenwich and surrounding areas with complexities they face navigating their journey of integration in US society. Andy was a firm believer in old-style liberal thinking, basic humanism and dedicated to the success of multiculturalism.

Andy never ceased in finding the positive side of any challenging situation, enabling people to move forward and live their life passions to the fullest. This wisdom, combined with her fondness for engaged discussions of current events, was loved and appreciated by family and friends, with many people remarking upon her death, “Andy made me smile”. She was an avid reader of great works of the day, loved music - opera in particular! - family ski trips, enjoyed travel all over the world, and swimming (exclaiming “but oh, the pool!” in the Wellesley Alumni book).

Andrea is survived by her children, Karyn, and husband Christopher Lanzano of Fairfield, CT; Thomas, and wife Yi Liu Kirkman of San Francisco and Xian, China; and Kimberly, and husband Lourens Van Niekerk of Asheville, NC and Pretoria, South Africa; and six grandchildren- Alexander, Gerard, Stefan, Natasha, Nikolai, and Xinlin.

Andrea’s family will receive friends on Sunday, February 2nd from 12noon-4 p.m. at the Leo Gallagher & Son Funeral Home, 31 Arch Street, in Greenwich, CT. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Connecticut Hispanic Federation, using the link- https://www.hispanicfederation.org/donate/. Be sure to specify ‘Connecticut Office' in the ‘Comments’ section.