Antoinette Loiacono “Billie” Dupont ’50

Antoinette Loiacono “Billie” Dupont ’50, of Bloomfield, Conn.; Sept. 2, from complications of lung and heart disease. She graduated from Harvard Law School in 1954 among its second class of women and began her legal career as co-counsel for President Eisenhower’s Commission on the Application of Federal Law to the Virgin Islands before working briefly on Wall Street. She moved to New London, Conn., in 1956 and went into private practice. In 1977 Gov. Ella T. Grasso appointed her to the Connecticut Superior Court; six years later she was elevated to the appellate court. She served as chief judge from 1984 until taking senior status in 1997. During this period, she also served on two task forces on gender and justice. As a chair of the Task Force on Gender Bias in the Connecticut Courts, she did groundbreaking work to make the courts fairer to women. She also presided over the Connecticut Judges Association and continued to be an active member of the court and to sit on cases until 2016. She became a director of The Day in 1986 and was named to the newspaper’s board of trustees in 1989. She was a member of Zonta and the League of Women Voters. She is survived by daughters Ellen Dupont ’77 and Antonia D. van der Meer ’79; son William ’83; son-in-law Peter N. van der Meer ’79; seven grandchildren, including Nicolaas van der Meer ’06; two great-grandchildren; and two brothers.