Charles Lipton, an honorary emeritus trustee of Washington University in St. Louis, died Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in Wellington, Fla. He was 96.
Lipton was a retired chair of the board and senior counselor at major public relations firm Ruder-Finn Inc. in New York, where he began as an account executive in 1953. He previously had worked at 20th Century Fox and at Cecil & Presbury.
He was first elected to the university Board of Trustees in 1977; he became an emeritus trustee in 1999. He served on the board’s Educational Policy Committee (now known as the Academic Affairs Committee) and on the Development Committee.
Lipton also served as chair of the WashU Public Relations Council from 1980-2011. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1948.
Lipton is survived by his daughter Susan (Marc); grandchildren Amy (Jesse) and Melissa (Daniel); and four great-grandsons, Sammy, Jake, Kody and Brady. A service was held at Beth Israel Memorial Chapel in Boynton Beach, Fla., Jan. 8.