POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (AP) — Once Kathryn Wasserman Davis got a taste for kayaking on the Hudson River, it wasn’t easy keeping her outings limited to the calmer coves and bays, even when she reached 100 years of age.
In a June 15, 2007 photo, Kathryn Wasserman Davis listens to speakers during a ceremony at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. Davis’ family said in a statement that the globe-trotting philanthropist died Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at her home in Hobe Sound, Fla. Her $20 million donation to the New York group in her 100th year led to major riverfront park improvements in Tarrytown and neighboring Sleepy Hollow, said Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson, a Poughkeepsie-based environmental and cultural preservation group. ( AP Photo/The Journal News, Frank Becerra Jr.) Photo: AP
“She always wanted to go out into the main channel and feel the wind and waves. She wanted to stay out for hours,” said Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson, a Poughkeepsie-based environmental and cultural preservation group that received a $20 million donation from Davis after she turned 100.
Davis’ family said in a statement that the globe-trotting philanthropist died Tuesday at her home in Hobe Sound, Fla. She also had homes in Northeast Harbor, Maine, and Tarrytown in Westchester County.
Officials with Scenic Hudson said Davis grew to love the Hudson River while living in Manhattan as a graduate student at Columbia University and later when she and her husband lived in a hilltop home overlooking the river in suburban Tarrytown. She was introduced to Scenic Hudson by a grandson, Christopher Davis, a Hudson Valley resident who served on the group’s board.
