THEA P. IERVOLINO

IERVOLINO--Thea Petschek, artist and philanthropist, passed away on Friday, January 24, 2014, in Riverdale, New York, at the age of 89. She was preceded in death by her husband Antonio Iervolino, and by her siblings Charles, Max, and Thomas Petschek. A graduate of Vassar College and of Parsons School of Design, Thea was a skilled potter and painter and for many years taught those skills and origami as a volunteer in New York City Public Schools on the lower East Side. She was a generous life-long donor to International House New York where she lived for two years after college. Among other gifts, she donated a music practice room to that institution. She also was an important donor to the Juilliard School of Music where she, along with her siblings and cousins, established the annual Juilliard William Petschek Recital Award in honor of her uncle. She loved all the arts and vigorously supported arts programming on public television Channel 13 and public radio station WQXR. From an early age, she was an avid photographer. Attending the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936 with her father, she took a picture of Jesse Owens receiving the Gold Medal. Six decades later, she presented that historic photograph to the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, during that city's Olympic Games. She will be fondly remembered by the many people in all walks of life whom she befriended and helped, as well as by her nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews to whom she was always unfailingly attentive and generous.