Rosalind Everdell Havemeyer, age 99, died peacefully at home in New York City on March 8, 2017. Rossie, as she was known, was born on August 8, 1917 in Watch Hill, RI and was the daughter of Rosalind and William Everdell and the wife of the late Horace Havemeyer, Jr. She was looked after, these past few years, by a group of wonderful caregivers – the Magnificent Seven. She went to Foxcroft School and later in life received honorary degrees from Hofstra University and Washington College. She was devoted to her family, opera, the sea and gardening. She was a great sailor who started a small yacht club in Islip, Long Island; a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood; an historic preservationist in making two 17th century farmhouses into homes with beautiful gardens – first in Dix Hills, NY and then at The Reward in Chestertown, MD.
It was in Chestertown where, in 1997, she helped start the Sultana Education Foundation by supporting the building of the schooner Sultana, a full-scale reproduction of a vessel that sailed the Chesapeake in the years before the American Revolution. Rossie said she had “a love affair” with Union Theological Seminary in NYC where she joined the board in 1965 and then became the Chair of its board in 1970, the first woman to chair the Board of a Seminary in the US and she continued to serve on that board until 1982. In 1988, she received the Seminary’s highest honor for her service “because she embodied the prophetic role of women in theological education…”
Rossie was predeceased by her eldest son, Horace Havemeyer, III (survived by Eugenie Cowan Havemeyer) and by her youngest granddaughter, Emily Roosevelt Foehl (survived by Peter Foehl), as well as her two brothers, William and Romeyn Everdell. She is survived by her children Rosalind Havemeyer Roosevelt (Christopher duPont Roosevelt), William Everdell Havemeyer (Jane Litzenberg Havemeyer) and Christian Havemeyer, also her grandchildren Kate Roosevelt (Caroline Maillard ), Christopher Havemeyer Roosevelt (Christina Luke Roosevelt) and William MacGregor Havemeyer (Rebecca Schulman Havemeyer) and also her six great grandchildren Noah and Wiley Roosevelt, Mason and Liam Foehl and Nellie and Nate Havemeyer.
The interment will be private and a Memorial Service is being planned to take place in the late Spring at Union Theological Seminary in NYC. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name to Union Theological Seminary utsnyc.edu or to Sultana Education Foundation sultanaeducation.org
John Hudson says
My Heartfelt Condolences Chris ♥