Papers of Vanda Sendzimir, 1967-1997

Writer and social activist Vanda Sendzimir (1952-1996) was born and raised in Waterbury, Connecticut, the daughter of Berthe Bernoda and Tadeusz Sendzimir. She had two brothers, Stanley and Jan Peter, and a half brother, Michael, from her father's previous marriage. She attended Reed College (1971-1973) and graduated from McGill University (1976), where she was one of the founders of the first college women's newspaper in Canada, and active in the anti-war and feminist movements. Sendzimir came from a wealthy family and struggled for all of her life with the issues surrounding money and privilege. As a student at McGill, she was influenced by feminist revolutionary Marlene Dixon and eventually moved to San Francisco where, from 1977 to 1986, she worked as a graphic designer and for social change as a member of a small Marxist-Leninist group led by Dixon. Eventually disillusioned, Sendzimir moved to Boston in 1986, where she worked as a freelance journalist and published Steel Will: The Life of Tad Sendzimir (1994), a biography of her father, an inventor and entrepreneur. She married photographer and social activist David Ludlow in August 1995, and the couple began the process of adopting a child from China. Sendzimir was active in the Boston chapter of the National Writers Union and in organizations working for social justice and civil rights, giving generously of her time and money. As a journalist she covered a wide range of topics, from flight data records to macrobiotic diets to Polish history to traveling in China. Her articles appeared in The Boston Globe, American Heritage of Invention & Technology, and Sojourner, among others. She won a 1995 Lowell Thomas Award for her essay, "Dog Days in China," published in The North American Review. An avid photographer, traveler, and mountaineer, Sendzimir fell to her death while climbing in Siberia with her husband in August 1996.