- Date Of Birth: May 31, 1926
- Date Of Death: October 8, 2013
- State: Connecticut
RHEA KOVAR SOSSEN of Belmont, Massachusetts, passed away unexpectedly at age 87 from natural causes. She leaves her son David Sossen, daughter Nina Sossen, grandchildren Abigail Sossen and Jack Lawson and great-grandchild Mackenzie. Her daughter Paula Lawson, brother Leo Kovar and former husband Harold Sossen all predeceased her. Rhea was born in Albany, New York, the younger child of Nahum and Bessie Kovar. She graduated from Radcliffe College with a degree in Chemistry and worked as a medical researcher while completing graduate studies in physiology. After giving birth to her son and twin daughters, she retired from science and took up a second career as a poet and piano teacher. She taught piano and performed as part of a two-piano duo in the Boston area for many years beginning in the early 1970s. In her later years, she developed a love of poetry and was actively involved as a poet and member of the poetry community. Rhea had a lifelong love of learning. She was an active member of the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement for close to two decades and her house was filled with issues of the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and magazines and books on many topics. She loved many things: New England in the spring, the Boston Symphony, Democratic politics, and the Boston Red Sox. More than anything, she loved her family: her children, grandchildren, great-grandchild, brother, nieces and nephew, and cousins.
