Vicki Lee Sopher, 68, of Grinnell, passed away on Tuesday, December 5, 2017, at Mayflower Health Care Center South Village. A gathering to celebrate Vicki's life will be held at 2:00 p.m., on Monday, December 18, 2017, in the Carman Center of the Mayflower Community with refreshments to follow. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be designated to Grinnell Regional Hospice or Mayflower Community Human Needs Fund. She was born in Fort Madison, Iowa on March 13, 1949, the third child of William Ritchie Sopher and Clio Hunter Sopher. Vicki adored reading, always a book worm. She graduated from Fort Madison High School in 1967, salutatorian of her class and went on to attend the University of Iowa, receiving her Bachelors in 1971. While in Iowa City, she was working at Westinghouse in data entry. Seeing a job posted for a school system in Mt. Prospect, IL near Chicago resulted in her job as a computer operator for 13 years, then retiring on disability in 1994. In 1982, family helped her purchase a condo in Chicago in the now affluent and notable northside neighborhood of Lake View, where she lived until 2013 when she moved to Grinnell to be closer to family. Vicki had longstanding ties to her neighborhood and was a member of the Lake View Presbyterian Church, a mere 2 blocks from her condo. Vicki welcomed all structures of family into her life after she left Iowa. Vicki was married to Norman Watkins in 1988, divorced in 1993.Vicki did lots of baby-sitting, cat and dog sitting in her retirement and maintained long term relationships with her charges. She assisted with her friend's autistic child, David, also assisting elderly neighbors with shopping and as a companion to a friend's elderly mother. Her love for helping people knew no bounds. Vicki enjoyed road trips, often returning to the Ghost Ranch Retreat Center in New Mexico, a desert retreat one time frequented by Georgia O'Keefe, her favorite artist. Vicki liked to make extended visits to family members, friends, and former charges, which included Iowa, suburban Illinois, South Carolina, New Jersey, Arizona and California. Vicki enjoyed cooking and baking and had an indefatigable, inquisitive nature and read voraciously on many subjects. She engaged in drawing, painting and sewing and loved listening to music, her tastes being eclectic. Vicki is survived by her sisters, Janis Peak, Kim (Bob) Wemer and brothers, Rene (Sharon) Sopher, Bruce (Nancy) Sopher and Barry (Merih) Sopher; her last living uncle, Maury Hunter; first cousins, Bob Spurgin, Ann Rains, Craig Hunter and Karen Ellison; nieces and nephews, David Sopher, Sara Peak Convery, Cyd Peak, Lauren Greenberg Sutter, Hannah Sopher, Harry Sopher, Revan Sopher and Ashton Sopher. She was preceded in death by her parents and brothers-in-law, Rob Greenberg and Ed Peak and a first cousin, Scotty Hunter.