Ilion High School - Class of 1991

Utica Daily Press - February 19, 1986

Skippy Coffin, 12, dies after battle with encephalitis

Article 7

Source is here Utica NY Observer 1986 - 1826.pdf on fultonhistory.com

Utica Daily Press 1991 IHS Graduates

Skippy Coffin, 12, dies after battle with encephalitis

By TIM BLYDENBURGH

ILION - Roy (Skippy) Coffin, 12, lost his four-month battle with acute encephalitis yesterday morning, dying at Syracuse's Upstate Medical Center.

Students from Remington Elementary School, where he graduated, and the.Ilion Central Schools and others in the community raised money to help pay for the seventh grader's treatment at the hospital.

The "Skip-a-thon" benefit, where students jumped rope for pledges, was videotaped for him in December.

Skippy became ill shortly after Halloween. The disease sent him into a coma in early November. He was treated at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, where doctors gave him powerful drugs to prevent seizures.

By mid-December, he seemed to improve, opening his eyes and showing other signs of improvement.

Skippy's parents, Roy and Marcia Coffin, of 40 Second Ave., Ilion, were encouraged by his progress and had hoped to move him to a Utica hospital by this spring.

A neighbor, Mary Reitz, said Skippy recently had been able to focus and had normal hearing, But she said Skippy contracted pneumonia and yesterday his heart stopped.

"He had come so far," she said.' "It was terrible. He was such a beautiful boy."

The community feels shocked as well, she said.

His fellow students were deeply saddened by his death, Joseph Collea, Ilion High School vice principal, said.

The students had planned to send Skippy a taped message Friday, Collea said. The student council will be sending flowers to the funeral, he said.

Besides his parents, he is also survived by a sister, Vicki; his maternal grandparents. Gene and Amelia Vallecorsa of Little Falls; several aunts, uncles and cousins.

Calling hours will be tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Applegate Funeral Home in Ilion.

On Thursday at 9 a.m. a Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Church of the Annunciation, in Ilion.

Created and maintained by Aileen Carney Sweeney - Class of 1974