of Boston, May 20, 2009, just days before her 85th birthday.

Beloved daughter of the late Mary Agatha (Heaney) and Frederic J. Tree of Milton. Adored sister of Elizabeth Anne Tanner of Needham, Eleanor O’Callaghan of Boston and the late Mary Isabel MacDonald (Marion) of Milton. Cherished aunt of Frederic T. Tanner of Los Angeles, Mary-Laura Greely of Wellesley Hills, Carol Marshall of Hingham, Dr. Tobey MacDonald of Washington, D.C. and the late Paula Anne Soyster and Mary Beth Yasi.

She graduated from Simmons College (’45) where she was Class President and attended The Boston Museum School of Art. She served in the W.A.V.E.S. United States Naval Reserves from 1944-1946 with two of her sisters. Connie was widely recognized for her extraordinary career in graphic arts, culminating with her appointment as the first woman Vice President of Xerox Corporation (formerly Ginn & Co).

In 1975 she received the Simmons College Honors Convocation Citation and in 1987, The Bookbuilders of Boston, W.A. Dwiggins Award. She served as a Trustee of Regis College in Weston for twelve years and was a lecturer at Boston College on graphic arts and publishing. A gifted watercolor painter and gardener, she was a member of The Museum of Fine Arts, The Boston Athenaeum, The Society of Printers, Boston and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Profiled in Simmons College Alumnae Magazine, she was described as a “charming blonde artist-turned businesswoman who seems to have an inherent knack for getting in on the ground floor of everything new”. Simmons went on to conclude “Seventy-five years after John Simmons verbalized his ideas for women, Ms. Tree, has, in many ways, epitomized his dream”.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in Saint Agatha Church, Adams Street at Brook Road, Milton, Friday May 22 at 9:00 AM. Relatives and friends invited. Interment Milton Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers donations in her memory may be made to Simmons College or The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.