Vivian Scott Hixson graced this world until the very end, August 4, 2025, when she died at Sparrow Hospital from complications following major operations.

She was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on Sept. 21, 1936 to John Paul Scott and Sarah Fisher Scott. She came from a long line of woman writers: her great-grandmother; her grandmother, Dorothy Canfield Fisher; and her mother as well. With that background, it is not surprising that she published her first book, “The Potted Witch or A Girl’s Best Friend is her Mother”, which she illustrated as well as an undergraduate at Antioch College. Her interest in cartooning bore fruit when she found her niche portraying academic foibles in cartoons for “The Chronicle of Higher Education”, then in a compilation, “He Looks too Happy to be an Assistant Professor”, and also in a second compilation. Cartooning was an avocation for Vivian: she wanted to be a social scientist. She moved from a literature major at Antioch to an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, to a PhD program in Sociology which started at Columbia – and after her husband, Bill Hixson, received an offer from the Michigan State Department of History – she completed her degree at MSU. Subsequently, she taught many courses in the department, earning the reputation of being able to practically teach anything.

She is survived by her husband, William B. Hixson, Jr. of East Lansing, by her son, James Scott Hixson of Longmont, Colorado and her two grandchildren, Cooper Bartlett Hixson and Sofia Paola Giargiari.