The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Victoria Tipp

Remembering Richard Lange

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Whenever you walked into Lange’s Little Store in Chappaqua, Richard Lange would greet you with a big smile and his twinkling eyes, and he was always at your service. Whether the store was busy or not, he took the time to chat and ask how you were doing. He always had time for his customers and neighbors.

Richard Lange, best known as the owner of Lange’s Little Store and Deli in Chappaqua, passed away on April 9, 2024. He was 87 years old and is survived by his wife Christa, his daughters Vicki (Bergstrom) and Heidi and his granddaughter Madelyn Bergstrom and her fiancé David Anderson III. He was predeceased by his son-in-law Charlie Bergstrom. Lange was born in Wanna, Germany on Dec. 22,1936 and grew up on his grandparents’ farm. He immigrated to the United States in 1956 and served briefly in the United States Army. In 1968, the family settled in Chappaqua where Lange owned The Little Store. He and Mrs. Lange opened Lange’s Deli in Scarsdale in the mid-1970s, and in Bronxville in the 1980s. They returned to their Chappaqua store in 1989 where it became a focal point in the town.

Lange’s motto was “You need something, I’ll help.” With his warm smile and great laugh Lange touched so many lives from the daily regulars to the store, to very young people, returning college students, and first-time visitors.

A welcoming personality…

Town of New Castle Supervisor Victoria B. Tipp wrote, “Mr. Lange, through the force of his unique personality, created a haven, a second home where people gathered to catch up, have impromptu meetings, and run into friends, neighbors, and familiar faces. He remembered everyone and would chat about what mattered to them. During my years on the school board, he would always ask ‘so, how are the schools doing?’ and had detailed questions about current projects and happenings. Upon learning of my new role with the town, he would simply say with raised eyebrows ‘so…how’s everything?’ and would always listen with great interest and patience.”

A helping hand…

Beth Kuck Hundgen, owner of Whispering Pines of Chappaqua will never forget the day her store caught fire. “It was a devastating moment, watching everything I had worked for go up in flames. But, in the midst of that chaos, one person stood out for his kindness and compassion, Mr. Lange. As I stood outside, feeling helpless and overwhelmed, Mr. Lange appeared by my side. Without hesitation, he rolled up his sleeves and began helping me salvage what we could from the burning building. As we worked together, I couldn’t help but notice the tears in his eyes. He wasn’t just helping me; he was feeling my pain, too. His empathy and concern for my well-being meant the world to me! Mr. Lange’s selflessness and kindness didn’t stop that day. He continued to support me and the community in countless ways, always willing to lend a helping hand or listening ear.”

A generous soul…

George Haletzky, a manager of Lange’s Little Store for 30 years, has known Lange since his childhood, and has fond memories of learning the ropes from Lange. “He took you under his wing and he’d teach you if you wanted to learn. He was a wealth of knowledge. He tried to keep this store like a family atmosphere.” Haletzky cited that most employees have worked there for many years. “The most important thing was the customers,” said Haletzky. Lange, who knew everybody’s name, encouraged his staff to talk to the customers and get to know them as well. “Mr. Lange saw many generations come through here, and always said that the children were the future. He always talked to the kids.” Lange donated to all the sports programs in town. “He was one of the most generous people you’d ever meet in your life, between giving you goodies and actually caring about you.”

A wise man…

Longtime Chappaqua resident Don Roane has known Lange since the Lange family moved to Chappaqua in 1968. “Richie was very appreciative of this country,” said Roane. “Having seen loss and hunger at the end of World War II in Europe, that impacted Richie in the way he lived and treated people. He was wise in his ability to see things. When he saw hunger, he did something about it. He took care of his family, and he took care of yours too. We need more people like Richard Lange. They make the world a better place.”

A man of grace…

At a Celebration of Life Service on April 21 at The First Congregational Church in Chappaqua, his daughter Vicki said, “My father was a wonderful person. He treated everyone the same. He was everyone’s Opa. He was selfless. He loved to give and expected nothing in return. He was the most down to earth person.” Reverend Martha Jacobs spoke of Lange as a mensch (the Yiddish word for a good person) and all the mitzvahs (good deeds) that he was known for, and that he had dignity and a generosity of spirit.

Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe called Lange Chappaqua’s rebbe–the one who serves as the spiritual and emotional nerve center of the community whose mission is to care for the well-being of each-and-every person in the neighborhood. “No one brought us together like Mr. Lange,” said Jaffe to the nearly 700 people of all faiths and backgrounds who filled the church.

Hillary Rodham Clinton said that Lange, “left us a great legacy of love.” President Bill Clinton credited Lange as the big reason he has spent the last 25 years in Chappaqua and spoke of Lange’s compassion and the way he treated people. He said that Lange’s life was uncommonly grateful and graceful. “He was incredibly graceful in all the ways that count. As for me and our house, we are grateful for the grace he showered on us.” The same could be said by all who knew and loved Richard Lange.

Victoria Bayard Tipp’s Inspiring Journey to Public Service

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A Passionate Voice for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Town of New Castle

PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

Town of New Castle Deputy Supervisor Victoria Bayard Tipp is the first person of color to be elected and to serve on the town board. Tipp has lived in Chappaqua with her husband Robert for 22 years. They have four grown children. Tipp shares her thoughts on diversity, equity and inclusion, her aspirations for the town, and her inspiring personal journey.

Born in Port au Prince, Haiti, Vicky Tipp immigrated to the United States in 1963 when she was almost two years old. As she and her mother were boarding the plane, Haitian military police pointed guns at them. Tipp was terrified and did not want to walk. Fortunately, an American flight attendant saw this and took the toddler from her mother. She carried Tipp onto the plane preventing the police from shooting the child and her mother because an American was present. When they arrived in the states they first lived in New York with her grandmother, an award-winning educational leader in Haiti, who had fled the country earlier. They were later joined by her father who was an attorney.

Tipp, whose first language was French, entered Kindergarten in a public school in Jackson Heights, Queens where they had no program for non-English speakers. When her mother took a job at the United Nations, they moved to Manhattan and Tipp was enrolled in first grade at the United Nations International School, a multicultural school with students from over 100 countries. She then went on to earn degrees from Barnard College and Harvard Law School.

Education was very important to Tipp and her family, so it is no surprise that she began her public service work on the Chappaqua Board of Education. “The most important aspect of education was my family’s attitude about it as the way to live a fulfilling life and gain independence and stability,” says Tipp. “That was a big influence for my running for the Board of Ed.”

Equity, diversity, and inclusion have been important issues for Tipp. When she was elected to the Chappaqua Board of Education in 2011, she had discussions with the then superintendent about equity and inclusion and what they could do in Chappaqua to expose students to more diversity. “At the time people were not focused on issues of equity like they are now,” says Tipp. “However, when Christine Ackerman became superintendent, she was very responsive to those concerns and willing to open up our professional development to work with Ossining and other school districts, which provided a good perspective for our faculty.”

Then with the Black Lives Matter movement, the school board started to hear from alumni whom they then invited to a meeting to share their stories as they began an equity audit. “We wanted to open that up to our alumni and our community, so people could understand the extent of the inequities that had taken place,” says Tipp. Christine Ackerman, Superintendent of Schools, acknowledges Tipp’s significant role in this work. “As a member of the Board of Education and past president, Vicky’s leadership, insights, and advocacy for action were instrumental in shifting our practices to respond to the needs identified by our students and community in our equity audit,” says Ackerman. “Her unwavering commitment to ensuring all students are seen and valued for who they are in our school community resulted in revising several Board of Education policies, forming the CARES committee, and selecting Insight to support professional learning for all staff.”

Tipp did a considerable amount of equity advocacy work on the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association where she was chair of the advocacy committee for three years and president for three years. She also served on the steering committee for the Lower Hudson Education Coalition, an organization that does legislative advocacy. “I was able to do a lot more equity work through those regional organizations than I was able to do just being on the local board level,” says Tipp. “That made school board work for me a very rich and rewarding experience. It gave me a perspective into what other school districts were experiencing including children who are not as fortunate as children in Chappaqua.”

New Castle Supervisor Lisa Katz says that Tipp’s diverse background gives her the perfect perspective to address diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in the town as the board liaison to the Committee on Race, Equity and Inclusion (CREI.) “Vicky is an incredibly thoughtful and intelligent woman who is singularly focused on doing what’s right for our community. Having served as the non-partisan president of the school board, she understands the importance of listening to all viewpoints and treating our neighbors with genuine respect.”

Tipp has a vision for how she hopes the CREI will do their work with the community. “In my experience, both on the school board and on the town board, when people think about these entities–schools, or governments or organizations–it’s important to understand that these are not static and impersonal, they’re made of people, and they’re living and breathing systems. They are made up of relationships and interactions,” says Tipp who thinks that good communication is key and ground rules should be set. “It’s important to establish environments where there is trust, where we can create safe spaces to have real conversations. People need to feel that they can come forward with their ideas without fear of being stigmatized,” says Tipp. She would like the focus to be on understanding, rather than having to agree, and for people to be willing to talk through differences. “I think that the hardest thing to do is to create common understandings to have constructive conversations to move forward together in a productive way. These are the things we need to do as a community.”

Collaboration is a word that resonates with Tipp. “Diversity, equity and inclusion are paramount to the growth and health of a community,” says Tipp. “There are nine of these committees doing this work in the town.” In addition to the CREI that was appointed in May, the Chappaqua School district has the Board’s CARES committee, plus seven PTA committees–one district-wide and one at each of the six schools. And there is also the DEI work being done by the four other school districts within the Town of New Castle. “It’s important to form partnerships so that we have a community that’s racially, culturally, and socially inclusive and it gets hard to do that if you’re working in different silos.”

In addition to serving as the liaison to the CREI, she is also the liaison to the Beautification Advisory Board. The Town expects to form an LGBTQ committee to which Tipp will be the liaison as well.

Like Supervisor Katz, Tipp would like to see more cultural celebrations in town. “This is something we can do by working with our different town committees, the CREI committee, EPIC, and Holocaust and Human Rights Committee. We have these committees to provide a more inclusive process and to have more input from residents in town. It’s important for all the committees to work together to bring programs, events, presentations and get togethers–formal and informal,” says Tipp.

Tipp sees a way to bring the town together. “In order to do anything from equity work, zoning, revitalization, and bringing vibrancy to the hamlets, we would want to be inclusive with that work as well. There’s so much we can do together. I really believe in the power of collaboration of groups, and I think if we do that, we will create a sense of belonging because we’ll be creating more connections between groups and people.”

Tipp’s experience on the town board has surpassed her expectations. “I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What’s been wonderful is peoples’ willingness to take on challenging tasks that are important to our community to move the community forward. It’s an honor to serve.” She finds the challenges motivating, and likes that she can help people, and listen to their stories and perspectives. “That’s what makes us a community. We learn about each other, and we learn from each other.”