Kathryn Wasserman Davis
| Kathryn Wasserman Davis | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Kathryn Wasserman February 25, 1907 United States |
| Died | April 23, 2013 (aged 106) Hobe Sound, Florida |
| Occupation | Philanthropist, Investor, Scholar, Artist. |
| Spouse(s) | Shelby Cullom Davis |
Kathryn Wasserman Davis (February 25, 1907 – April 23, 2013) was an American philanthropist, scholar of world affairs, and longtime promoter of women's rights and planning parenthood. She was committed to engaging local communities, particularly regarding the environment on the Hudson River and Maine coast, and also concerned with access to high-quality education. At the age of 94, she began an artistic adventure, producing more than 200 paintings.
Kathryn was married to businessman Shelby Cullom Davis, who developed the series of Davis investment instruments and later became the United States Ambassador to Switzerland, from 1969 until 1974. Her husband died in 1994. Early in her career, Mrs. Davis worked for the Council on Foreign Relations and authored The Soviets at Geneva: The USSR and the League of Nations, 1919-1933. An alumna of Wellesley College, she earned a master's degree, in 1931, at Columbia University and, in 1934, a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies. Physically, she led an active life—with early interests in skiing from the 1930s until she stopped in her mid-90s, a bicyclist throughout her life, a competitor on the tennis court until age 101, and equally so on the croquet field until age 105. She adopted kayaking at age 95 and continued that for ten years. She was swimming even at age 106 just weeks before her death.
Following an eight-decade legacy in philanthropy, much of it anonymous, Davis launched her signature project on her 100th birthday, in 2007, when she committed $1,000,000 to fund 100 practical, student-led peace actions, each with a $10,000 grant, at selected institutions around the world. This program, called Projects for Peace, has continued annually and expanded.
Davis celebrated her centenary in 2007 and died at her home in Hobe Sound, Florida, on April 23, 2013. She was 106 years old.
Kathryn Wasserman came from a family of strong Wellesley-educated women. Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on February 25, 1907, she said her first memory was of walking in a suffragette parade with her mother as they waved their yellow flags in support of equal rights for women. During her time at a Friends school in Philadelphia, she became an incidental activist for peace, later serving as Secretary of the League for Peace and Freedom at Wellesley College. For her senior year of high school, she attended the Madeira School. As the only Jewish girl in school, she faced many instances of discrimination. Yet she still excelled academically. In 1929, she journeyed on horseback into the Caucasus Mountains with famed anthropologist Leslie White. After completing her doctoral work in international relations in 1934, she later, following World War II, became active in Planned Parenthood in the Tarrytown, New York, area, coordinating with Eleanor Roosevelt, who was then the national head.
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