Mildred Ruth Rapp (Mili) was born on May 2, 1941 in New York City. She died peacefully on November 22, 2025 in Norton, Massachusetts with family at her side.
Mili grew up in New York City. Several of her relatives, all Jewish immigrants from Germany, lived in the same building as her immediate family. Her father, Arthur Rapp, was a traveling salesman; Paula Rapp, her mother, was a housewife and a superb baker. For primary through high school Mili went to the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Riverdale, which nurtured her strong commitment to social justice. As a high school exchange student in France, she became fluent in French and made lifelong friends. She and her older sister Frances were the first members of their family to go to college. A natural linguist, Mili studied German literature at the University of Chicago.
In 1964, Mili married Werner (Tom) Angress, a Jewish professor of European history at SUNY Stony Brook who had escaped Nazi Germany and was an 82nd Airborne paratrooper and interrogator during World War II. Mili and Tom settled in Port Jefferson, on Long Island, where they raised their two daughters, Miriam and Nadine. They divorced in the late 1970s. (Years later, they became friends.) Mili spent another few decades in Port Jefferson, learning Spanish, getting master’s degrees in French literature and Spanish, teaching, and renting out rooms in her house to graduate students, many of whom became dear friends. As a single mom, she worked full time teaching English as a Second Language to adults and French and Spanish to elementary, junior high, and high school students. In 1986 she was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach in Colombia for a year. She lived in Connecticut for her last 15+ years, where she spent a lot of time with her grandson Brady, daughter Nadine, and son-in-law Dave, and made more beloved friends.
Mili had a vast capacity for friendship and for love. She was warm, engaged, spirited, kind, and principled. Mili liked being helpful and being of service to the world. She was independent. She enthusiastically viewed and discussed art, film, and literature, and was particularly interested in foreign works. She was famously stubborn and determined. She would speak to waiters at French restaurants in French, even if they were just bewildered teenagers. She knew the word for butterfly in many languages. She loved to be in nature, to canoe, to bike, to do tai chi, to be with family and friends, to read gentle children’s books, to go folk dancing and to museums, and to sing in her beautiful soprano voice to her children and grandson. She enjoyed listening to Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, NPR, Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez. Her radiant smile and delighted laughter reflected her generosity. When people she loved were sick or dying, she offered daily support. She could make friends swiftly with almost anyone. She had courage. She was loyal. One of her friends called her Mili the lionhearted.
Mili Rapp is survived by her two daughters, Miriam Angress (spouse Stephen Messer) of Durham, NC and Nadine Angress (spouse David MacWilliams) of Mansfield, MA; by her grandson Brady MacWilliams; by her sister Frances Abosch; by her stepsons Percy Angress (spouse Livia Linden) and Dan Angress (spouse Laurie Bohannan Angress), and by her nieces, nephews, step-grandchildren, and step-great-granddaughter. Her family and many friends are grieving her.
There will be a celebration of Mili’s life in the summer of 2026.
If you are moved to do something in her honor, please consider donating to an organization that supports nature or to a local food bank.