Cecilia Bryant still remembers the first time she met her husband, Dr. Richard Lipsey. Her sister had just opened a shop, and Cecilia’s job was to greet customers as they walked through the door.
“This guy walks up, and I greet him and chat with him, and he keeps wanting to chat for a while, and finally I said to him, ‘I’m working here,’” Cecilia recalled.
It wasn’t the last time she would hear from Richard, however. He would call her a few months later offering tickets to the Florida-Georgia game. She accepted, but only after asking an important question.
“I said, ‘Are you divorced?’ I’d been turning away men who were in the process of getting a divorce, which they never actually got,” Cecilia said. “And he said, ‘Yes, since noon,’ and I cracked up. He had just come out of the courthouse. So, I thought, ‘Gee, anybody that can call me two hours after getting his divorce finalized, must be interested.’”
Nearly 40 years after that phone call and Florida-Georgia game, the two are still married.
Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Richard’s early adulthood reads like a page from a Cold War thriller. After college, he joined the Air Force and was assigned to the U‑2 spy program. His job was to assemble aerial mosaics from reconnaissance photos taken over the Soviet Union.
“From 60,000 feet, I could read the license plates on those Soviet trucks,” said Richard.
When Francis Gary Powers’ U‑2 was shot down in 1960 in a major international incident, the fallout abruptly ended Richard’s military career.
“The colonel called us in and said, ‘Guess what? You’re all fired.’ I told him he couldn’t fire me – I still needed my GI Bill,” Richard said. “He said, ‘Richard, you’ve got the GI Bill right now. Go get smart.’”
And so he did. Richard went on to earn a PhD in pesticide toxicology, eventually becoming an expert witness in major environmental cases. His work took him to dozens of countries and earned him more than seven million frequent‑flyer miles – many of which he later donated to charity.
Meanwhile, Cecilia grew up in Ocala as a fifth‑generation Floridian and the daughter of Governor Farris Bryant. She spent her teenage years in the governor’s mansion, attending national conferences and meeting the nation’s leaders. She still has a photo of herself dancing with former President Lyndon B. Johnson at a Miami governors’ conference. She also visited Russia and China at the height of the Cold War, gaining a unique perspective during a time when few Americans traveled behind the Iron Curtain.
After college at Sweet Briar, Cecilia taught French and History in Gainesville before deciding to pursue law at UF. She was one of only five women in her law school class – “breaking the glass ceiling,” as Richard put it.
“My mother said, ‘let your reach exceed your grasp,’ you should always be reaching further than you can actually grasp at that time,” said Cecilia.
Her career took her to Washington, where she worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission before returning to Florida. Eventually, she became president of the Florida Red Cross, gaining a deep understanding of nonprofit work – knowledge that would later shape her and Richard’s philanthropic life.
The two didn’t meet until 1986, after their parallel paths had wound through government, academia and international travel. Together, they built a life filled with travel – cruising the Nile, visiting the Valley of the Kings, exploring the Dalmatian Coast, and returning to Borneo, where Richard had taught 700 Chinese students as a Peace Corps volunteer in the ‘60s.
But the heart of their shared life has been service, especially with The Salvation Army of Northeast Florida. Cecilia’s father served on the board, and she followed him, eventually bringing Richard into the fold.
“They do so much good,” Richard said. “Feeding the hungry, housing people, job training – real change.”
For more than 30 years, the couple served on committees, chaired Christmas efforts and supported matching‑fund programs that helped raise more than $2.3 million. Even now, you might still see them ringing the bell at the Roosevelt Publix when a volunteer calls out sick. Recently, the organization surprised the couple by dedicating a terrace in their honor at the its new downtown headquarters.
These days, Richard and Cecilia stay closer to home – attending symphony performances, teaching Sunday school at Ortega Church, reading and playing pickleball. They believe the keys to longevity are not smoking, exercising daily and maintaining a healthy social circle.
“We’re not on a fast schedule anymore,” Cecilia said. “We’re laid back, doing the things that are most important.”
