EDWARD ROBERT SIPAY SR.

Dr. Edward Robert Sipay Sr. who grew up in Ansonia, CT and lived in Saratoga Springs, NY died on December 24, 2024 surrounded by family and friends.
  
Born in Ansonia in 1932 to John and Mary Sipay, he attended Catholic elementary school and graduated from Ansonia High School in 1950 (lettering in two sports, football and basketball). His childhood friends, Ed Bednar (godfather to his son, Rob) and Ed Tyburski were life-long friends.
 
He earned his undergraduate degree at New Haven State Teachers College (1954) while playing basketball for the college with Ed Tyburski.
 
After graduation, Ed was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict.  As the marksman in Company K of the 39th Infantry Regiment, he was stationed in Furth, Germany from 1954 to 1956.  During his service, he played basketball for U.S. Army teams.  In 1956, he led Company K to the 39th Infantry Basketball Championship with 17 points (including two clutch free-throws in the final 58 seconds).
 
After being honorably discharged, Ed returned to Connecticut and earned a master’s degree at Fairfield University in the Graduate Department of Education (1956-1958) on the G.I. Bill.  He continued playing basketball locally for the Norwood Athletic Club Indians (Ansonia, 1956) and in the Connecticut A.A.U. basketball league (3rd place team in 1958).
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In the summer of 1958, Ed enrolled at the University of Connecticut.  At UConn, he met his future wife, Elizabeth, while earning his PhD (1958-1961).  In 1960, Ed was inducted into University of Connecticut chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, a national professional society for men in education.
 
After graduation, Ed married Elizabeth Alice Anthony on Aug 19, 1961 in her hometown of Torrington, CT.  The newlyweds then moved to Cambridge, MA where he began working as a Research Associate in the Harvard University Graduate School of Education as part of the Harvard-Carnegie Reading Study.
 
The following year, Ed began work as a Teacher and the Director of the Reading Center at State University of New York at New Paltz (1962-1963).
 
In 1964, Ed accepted a position as Associate Professor in the Department of Education at the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany).

 

While at SUNY Albany, he published materials related to Reading:

• “Learning disabilities: New direction or swinging pendulum?”, Vellutino, Frank. R., & Sipay, Edward. R. (1971)

• Sipay Word Analysis Tests (S.W.A.T.), Sipay, Edward R. (1974)

• How to Increase Reading Ability, Harris, Albert J.; Sipay, Edward R. (1975)

 
After retiring as a Professor from the Department of Reading (SUNY Albany), he pursued his personal interests.
 
As a loyal New York Knicks basketball fan since their championships in 1970 and 1973, he regularly watched games. While waiting for another Knicks championship, he was rewarded with UConn NCAA Basketball National Championships in 1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2023, and 2024 (a victory over Purdue, his son’s and daughter’s alma mater).
 
On Sundays, he would attempt and often complete the New York Times crossword puzzle.
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As a fiscal conservative, Ed was elected as a Trustee to the Saratoga Springs City School District's Board of Education (1996-1999) along with two other candidates who ran on a platform of tax reduction (after a recent 49% increase in local property taxes).
 
He was an avid collector of American key wind pocket watches and American key wind clocks (esp. Ansonia clocks, Seth Thomas clocks, Ithaca double dials, Howard regulators/banjos). He enjoyed spending time with fellow collectors – especially with the NAWCC Monday Night Clock Group (Dr. R. Malebranche, Dr. E. Merecki, P. Elmendorf, J. Kocsis, K. Burghart, S. Betts, E. Contento) and with B. Sausville of Bennington, VT.
 
Over the past forty-five years, his house was full of clocks and watches and hummed with the mechanical ticking of clock movements - interrupted only by occasional strikes and chimes. One New Year’s Eve, he tried (unsuccessfully) with his children to wind and adjust seventy antique clocks to strike midnight together.
 
He is survived by his daughter, Susan, and grandson, Niko; by his son, Rob (Jr.), daughter-in-law, Anne, and granddaughters, Madison and Isabella. 
 
Positions
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• Research Associate in the Harvard University Graduate School of Education as part of the Harvard-Carnegie Reading Study (1961)

• Teacher and Director of the Reading Center, State University of New York at New Paltz (1962-1963)

• Consultant to the New York State Department of Education (1965)

• Director of the Reading Clinic in the Department of Education of the State University of New York at Albany (1968)

• Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at Albany Medical College (1975)

• Professor of Reading at the State University of New York at Albany (1964-1994)

• Saratoga Springs City School District's Board of Education, Trustee (1996-1999)

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Publications
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• Sipay Word Analysis Test (SWAT). Sipay, Edward R. 1974.

• “An Evaluative Look at the Cooperative Studies of Reading in First and Second Grade: Limitations”. Sipay, Edward R. Int Reading Assn Conf. April 1968.

• Readings on Reading Instruction. Second Edition. Harris, Albert J.; Sipay, Edward R. 1972.

• How to Increase Reading Ability. Sixth Edition. Harris, Albert J.; Sipay, Edward R. 1975.

• The Effective Teaching of Reading" Harris, Albert J.; Sipay, Edward R. 1978.

• “Learning Disabilities: New Direction or Swinging Pendulum?”. Vellutino, Frank R.; Sipay, Edward R. National Elementary Principal. Jan 1971.

• “Longitudinal study of poor and normal readers”. Vellutino, F. R., Scanlon, D. M., Sipay, E., & Chen, R. S. June 1994.

• “Cognitive profiles of difficult-to-remediate and readily remediated poor readers: Early intervention as a vehicle for distinguishing between cognitive and experiential deficits as basic causes of specific reading disability”. Vellutino, F. R., Scanlon, D. M., Sipay, E. R., Small, S. G., Pratt, A., Chen, R., & Denckla, M. B. 1996.

 
Contact Us
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