Harriet H. Cramton

Harriet Cutter Haseltine Cramton, 97, died Saturday, May 2, at home in the Kendal at Ithaca community, where family members had been keeping vigil.

She was born February 13, 1929, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the daughter of Emery Thomas Haseltine and Hester Davis, and sister of older brother Calvin and younger brother Bob. She had a lively and creative mind and a loving and generous spirit. The family was grounded in the Congregational Church. 

After graduating from Girls’ Latin School in Boston, she went on to major in Art at Wellesley College, graduating in 1950. There she became part of a group of five friends who remained close for the rest of their lives.

After graduation, she attended Meadville Theological School at the University of Chicago to train as a religious education director. There she met Roger Conant Cramton of Harvard College and St. Johnsbury, Vermont, who became her husband of 65 years. At orientation, she looked around the room and noticed Roger, who looked like he could throw a football. They were married June 29, 1952. Four children followed.

Roger’s later choice of a career in law took them to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was a law professor, to Washington, D.C., where he directed the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department, and to Ithaca, New York, where he became Dean of Cornell Law School. They also made sabbatical visits in the U.S. and Europe. She was a hiker, skier and tennis player in an active family.

As Harriet and Roger nurtured their children, she taught occasional religion classes and refined her thoughts about children’s religious education. Two decades after she left Meadville Theological School, she turned in a prize-winning thesis to earn her master’s degree in religious education.

In subsequent decades, she invented an alter ego, Hickory Hedgehog, whose adventures she recounted, illustrated and dramatized in daughter-in-law Debbie Gwynne Cramton’s elementary school special education classes. In fall 2025, at age 96, she completed the story of Hickory’s adventures in a book entitled “My Education” by Hickory Hedgehog.

She also completed numerous paintings. A favorite subject was the vista of mountains and the deep glacial lake at Lake Willoughby, Vermont, where the family had a summer gathering spot.

She was a devoted mother and grandmother of four generations of progeny but also a beloved sister, aunt, sister-in-law, parishioner and friend. Among other things, she will be remembered for her cleverly penned cards and letters, often illustrated with drawings and poetry, her sense of humor, eye for beauty, love of nature, and deep faith.

She is survived by her family, who treasured her: four children and their spouses: Ann (Don), Charlie (Debbie), Peter (Catherine) and Cutter (Dawn), 11 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren, 12 great-great grandchildren, and 10 nieces and nephews. Her husband Roger preceded her in death in 2017.

A memorial service will be conducted at 10 a.m. on May 30 at the First Congregational Church, 309 Highland Road, Ithaca, NY.