Judith Ellen Shapiro Baxter passed away unexpectedly in Minneapolis on October 18, 2020, from what was later determined to be Lewy body dementia, a neurological disease. She was born at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital on July 7, 1943. She grew up in Brooklyn with her mother, Eva, father, Arthur, and sister, Naomi. She and her sister were close to their cousins Danny and Paula Coleman and Robby and Ruthie Marion.

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Judy attended Erasmus Hall High School before attending the University of Rochester, where she majored in mathematics. After college, she worked at MIT briefly before moving to Ann Arbor, where she received a masters in computer science. Judy met Harry Baxter in Michigan, and they married and moved to Minnesota. While they later divorced, Judy never left the Twin Cities—her love of its lakes and vibrant communities sustained her though the rest of her life. Judy got her Ph.D. in ecology at the University of Minnesota and conducted studies in northern Minnesota before moving on to work as a programmer in the Department of Epidemiology. She worked at the U for over 25 years. Judy also trained and worked as a divorce mediator.

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Judy loved to folk dance and was one of the founding members of the Tapestry Folkdance Center. She was a pioneer in the national co-housing community, helping to found the Monterey Cohousing Community in St. Louis Park. She loved to travel, often visiting friends across the country and traveling around the world, including trips to Morocco, Greece, and the rainforests of Costa Rica last year. She was delighted to become a grandmother, and connected to new parts within her as she connected to her granddaughters, Eva and Catie. Judy cherished her annual Thanksgiving trip to the Boston area, where she joined her extended friends and family, including her son and his family; sister, Naomi, and brother-in-law, Michael; and niece, Mila, nephew, Mathias, and their families. She was always searching for ways to improve both herself and the world, getting involved in political and social activism as well as the Option Institute. Starting with her time as an ecologist, she was dedicated to trying to combat the threats to our natural world.

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Judy is survived by her son, Ivan, daughter-in-law, Joanna, and granddaughters, Eva and Catie. She leaves behind a wealth of friends across many communities in the Twin Cities and throughout the nation. Donations in her honor can be sent to Partners in Health, Doctors Without Borders, Little Hospice, or the Nature Conservancy.