LESLIE BELLER

BELLER--Leslie.

Leslie Langworthy Beller, passed away on October 30, 2017 at her home in Brooklyn. The cause of death was endometrial cancer. Leslie died peacefully at home, without pain, surrounded by her husband Alan, her daughter Elizabeth and son David, their spouses Michael and Brigid and her granddaughter Clementine. Leslie was a wonderful spouse, friend and partner to Alan and a wonderful mother to Elizabeth and David. She was loving, devoted to family, strong, selfless, supportive and constant in both her affection and her common sense. Leslie was smart, funny, fearless in defense of the right thing and both grounded and visionary. Leslie demonstrated those virtues as a longtime pillar of Brooklyn's Park Slope community, where she moved with her then-new husband Alan in 1971. Leslie served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Prospect Park Alliance for 24 years, from 1993 until her death. She served as Chair and co-Chair of the Development Committee for many years and also served on a number of other committees, including the Executive and Operations Committees. She was recognized in 1997 for her work on the Alliance's Woodlands restoration, and in 2015 she received the Wilbur A. Levin Award, the Alliance's highest award for service. Leslie also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Brooklyn Museum from 2002 until her death. At the Museum she chaired the Board's Education Committee for many years and was a member of the Collections and Executive Committees. Leslie had a decades-long relationship with the Museum, at which she was an undergraduate intern in the American Arts Department in the 1970's and a co-Chair of the Museum Ball for many years prior to joining the Board. Leslie's other activities in Park Slope included service as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Park Slope Civic Council in the 1990's and as Chair and co-Chair of the Ya Gotta Have Park festival in Prospect Park in the 1980's. In all these activities, she was valued by those who knew and worked with her for her diligence, loyalty, probity, modesty, vision and sensible advice. She was dedicated to the achievements of the institutions which she served and uninterested in accolades--perhaps one reason they sometimes came her way. She worked tirelessly for years for the restoration of the Carousel, the Boathouse and the Ravine in the Woodlands in Prospect Park and for decades for the realization of the Park's Lefrak Center at Lakeside and its beautiful skating facilities. She was a longtime supporter of the Museum's collections and programs in American, Afro- American and Asian art. Leslie was born on July 20, 1951 in Philadelphia and spent her childhood in the Philadelphia suburbs, where she graduated from the Baldwin School. She received an undergraduate degree from New York University and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, both in art history. She punctuated her longtime residence in Park Slope with sojourns with her family for four years in Paris and three years in Tokyo. Her fearlessness and adventurous spirit turned those stays into rich and rewarding experiences. Her daughter Elizabeth was born in Paris. And Leslie was known to remark that her wedding vows did not include one to learn Japanese, and that her expectations of parenting did not include helping with the Japanese homework of her then second-grade son David. In addition to her husband Alan, son David, daughter Elizabeth and granddaughter Clementine, Leslie is survived by her three siblings. Funeral arrangements are private. A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the Prospect Park Alliance or the Brooklyn Museum, to which Leslie devoted so much energy over so many years.