Felice Lippert, 73; Co-Founder of Weight Watchers

Felice Marks Lippert, 73, a co-founder of the Weight Watchers diet system, died Saturday in Manhasset, N.Y. The cause of death was lung cancer.

Born in New York City, Lippert graduated from Hunter College and taught in New York public schools.

She helped develop the company’s programs and served as a director and vice president of Weight Watchers International until H.J. Heinz Co. bought the business in 1978.

At the time of her death, Lippert was chairwoman of the Weight Watchers Foundation.

In 1963, Lippert and her husband realized they had put on weight and contacted a woman, Jean Nidetch, who was teaching a diet regimen in New York.

The couple went on the program and Lippert dropped four pounds in a week, while her husband, Albert, shed seven. Eventually, they lost 100 pounds between them.

The Lipperts and Jean and Marty Nidetch then came up with a plan to market the diet by hosting weekly meetings at which Jean Nidetch spoke. Within a year, Albert Lippert was selling franchises.