In June, T. Barton Thurber, Director of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, accepted the Dutchess Award from the Dutchess County Historical Society (DCHS) for the museum’s contributions to the local community, including its role in spotlighting portraits of members of the family that had built the recently restored 180-year-old farmhouse where the celebration was held.
DCHS President Robert Doyle presented Thurber with the award, which recognized the Loeb for its “exceptional contributions to the Dutchess County community and beyond in the areas of preservation, history, and/or education.”
Doyle pointed to Thurber’s leadership in creating partnerships with DCHS and other community groups. The team at the Loeb, he said, had lent material support and counsel to DCHS as it mounted its major 2022 exhibition Fertile Ground: The Hudson Valley Animal Paintings of Caroline Clowes. Four of Clowes’s paintings are on exhibition at the Loeb through an extended loan agreement.
“I have only been with the museum for four years, but, in that time, we have strived to forge community partnerships, and our efforts are really just beginning,” Thurber said. He added that the College had always made its art collections accessible to the local community ever since the first Vassar art gallery opened in 1864, and he noted that the Loeb had remained open to the public throughout the COVID-19 pandemic “even after our students had to leave the campus.”
A guest of honor at the event was Vassar alum Fredrika Simpson Groff ’60, whose great-great grandfather and great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Borden Collins, were the original owners of the house.
Event host Frank Castella, Jr., President and CEO of the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce, purchased the historic Collins Estate four years ago and said Groff has helped his family restore the home by providing family artifacts. One contribution was an 1831 oil painting of Elizabeth Borden Collins and her daughter Phebe by the renowned artist Rembrandt Peale. The portrait was on display at the Loeb, and Groff was able to revisit the work during her trip.—Larry Hertz
Shay Humphrey ’91 says one of the first classes she took at Vassar in 1988 taught her to think like a lawyer. “I chose a first-year writing course given by the History Department, and it was eye-opening,” Humphrey recalled. “It was the first time I learned how to think instead of just absorbing information and parroting it back.” Thirty-five years later, she has returned to the College as its first full-time general counsel.
Humphrey comes to Vassar from the Newburgh, NY, law firm of Catania, Mahon & Rider, where she had worked since 2014. She is a graduate of the University of Florida College of Law and has been practicing in New York since 2002.
President Bradley, who led the team of faculty and administrators that conducted a nationwide search, said, “Shay really stood out from the rest. As a Vassar grad, she has an understanding of the culture here, and she has an agility of intellect and a genuine desire to partner with our faculty and our students.”
Bradley said one of Humphrey’s first tasks will be to review and codify the College’s policies and procedures, particularly those regarding risk management, and to provide guidance after the Supreme Court’s ruling on a case challenging colleges’ right to consider race and ethnicity in their admissions decisions.
Humphrey, who grew up in Lake George, NY, says she is excited about spending time on Vassar’s beautiful campus. “I’ve come back for reunions and Founder’s Days, and I wandered the campus with my kids when they were little,” she said, “but it will be nice to be here every day.”—Larry Hertz