LOU BARFIELD ZOPF
Aug. 21, 1942-Feb. 19, 2014
Lou Barfield Zopf, Dummerston, Vt., died at her home Wednesday evening, Feb. 19.
Born Aug. 21, 1942, in Goldsboro, N.C., she was the daughter of the late William J. and Beatrice Garris Barfield.
She graduated from Watts School of Nursing in Durham, N.C., and later received her BSRN degree from Mercy College.
In 1964, Lou joined the Peace Corps, and served two years in Afghanistan as a midwife.
She married Tom Zopf in 1967, while he was directing her Peace Corps training in Dummerston, Vt. In 1969, they began service overseas in India, where their daughter, Maude, and son, Adam, were born.
Leaving India in 1975, they lived in the Philippines; in Tunisia, where she served as Peace Corps medical officer; in Congo, serving as director of the U.S. Embassy medical service; and in Egypt, returning to the United States in 1983.
Lou continued her nursing career while living in New Rochelle, N.Y., then in Washington, D.C., where she was a regional medical officer for the Peace Corps, and then manager of a travel medicine clinic before moving to Vermont in 2002.
Lou's "retirement" in her home on the bank of the West River in Dummerston found her as active as ever. In addition to working at the VNA and The Retreat, she volunteered, delivering Meals-on-Wheels, spending winter nights at the overflow shelter, helping with Dummerston's Perennial Swappers, volunteering at the library, serving on the Green Mountain Camp board, chatting with patients at Pine Heights, hosting the annual Cow Party and just being there when anyone needed help.
Preceded in death by her brother, William J "Buck" Barfield, she is survived by her husband, Tom Zopf; sister, Janet Barfield Herring of Morehead City, N.C.; her children, Adam and wife, Regina Zopf, of Washington D.C., and Maude and husband, Dan Brewer, of Denver Colo.; and three grandchildren, Benjamin and Iris Brewer and Theo Zopf.
Services were arranged and are being held this Saturday with the Ker-Westerlund Funeral Home, 57 High St., Brattleboro, Vt.
Condolences may be sent to www.kerwesterlund.com or to Tom Zopf, 251 Camp Arden Road, Brattleboro, Vt., 05301.
A memorial service will be held later this summer in Goldsboro, when her ashes will be buried at Fairview Cemetery in LaGrange, N.C.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the local homeless shelter, The Brattleboro Drop In Center, 60 S. Main St., Brattleboro, Vt., 05301, or at brattleborodropin.org.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on February 26, 2014 1:46 PM