Vicki Carol Godin Sayarath

Vicki Carol Godin Sayarath, MPH, RD

11/3/1961-11/14/2022

Vicki Carol Godin Sayarath is loved and admired for her unbound determination and incomparable brilliance. As a child, she enjoyed the solitude of nature and the company of pets on her family’s hobby farm in her beloved hometown of Glover, Vermont. She cultivated a deep independence and introspection roaming the fields and woods around her childhood home.

Vicki was a sixth generation Vermonter who challenged any limitation or expectation imposed on her to achieve recognition and success in all pursuits. As a teenager, she became a Track and Field State Champion, holding two individual titles. She was a product of the trailblazing era in which she grew up and every action, big or small, carried intention and resolute conviction. Professionally, she ignored the gender bias in her field to become a distinguished Research Scientist at Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine. Previously, she served the Northeast Kingdom as Chief Executive Officer of the Orleans Essex County Visiting Nurse Association. She held a great appreciation for diversity and much of her life’s work, was dedicated to addressing social inequities, advocating for environmental policy change, and ultimately uplifting communities, especially her own. 

As she grew older, her exacting outlook removed her from much personal contact with the world and she enjoyed the companionship of a select few. The depths of her creativity, cleverness, kindness, and talents were well known to those closest to her but she preferred a private life and moved through much of hers with quiet modesty. Vicki was an exceptional writer and profoundly discerning, with a refined understanding of most people and things. She was a wonderful photographer, who captured with candid clarity the imperfections of existence. She had a fondness for nature and headless statues, spending most weekends outdoors or in her garden. She had a green thumb and grew many beautiful houseplants. She was an avid reader and absorbed information with enthusiasm and thoroughness.

Vicki’s insight, wisdom, and resourcefulness were great assets to many, and she led her life with extraordinary devotion to her loved ones. The output of such sincere, selfless love was the way she elevated the lives and experiences of her family through countless sacrifices of her own dreams and ambitions. Vicki’s amusing stubbornness, endless compassion, and good-humored cynicism will be missed, but cherished in every memory. She was a rare, complex, individual whose beauty, love and warmth will be forever mourned and celebrated. She was a treasure. She was the greatest gift. She was beautiful in every way.

She is survived by her widow Dr. Bouaketh John Sayarath, MD, Daughters Melanie and Dr. Maya Sayarath, MD, chocolate lab Princess Sadie, parents Reginald and Carol Godin, brother Vance Godin.

Please join us in remembering my beloved wife:

Wake: Friday, November 25^th from 5-7PM at 525 Summer Street, St. Johnsbury, Vermont 05819

Memorial service: Saturday, November 26^th 10AM at St. John the Evangelist Church, 49 Winter Street, St. Johnsbury, Vermont 05819

Memories and condolences may be shared with family at saylesfh.com.

***A graveside service for Vicki will be held at 11 AM on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, at Center Cemetery in Hyde Park, VT. The family would like to invite everyone to join them after the burial for a memorial celebration in The Barn at Boyden Farm in Cambridge, VT.