Alice H 105 Thurber

1908 - 2013

Thurber, Alice H, 105

Alice Laura Herald Thurber died July 9, 2013 at Kendal at Ithaca. She had recently celebrated her 105th birthday with a well-attended party of friends and well wishers. She was born April 23, 1908 in the Town of New Baltimore, Greene Co. NY, the daughter of Walter R. and Jennie Powell Herald. Her early life was spent on a farm on Stanton Hill where she attended a one-room school. The family later moved to New Baltimore Sta. (now Hannacroix) so that she could attend Coxsackie High School. She was also a graduate of Albany Business College. Most of her professional career was spent at SUNY, first at New Paltz Normal School. She joined the administrative staff of Cortland Normal School (SUNY Cortland) in 1942 and remained there until her retirement. Her early life on the farm predisposed her for a love of nature and outdoor activities. Alice was an accomplished figure skater and she loved hiking, biking and especially horseback riding. Many of her vacations were spent in touring our national forests and parks on horseback. She was also a world traveler, and enthusiastically recorded her travels with photographs. Her friends will remember especially her excellent photographs of flowers. Alice was a member of many environmental organizations and hiking societies, among them the Finger Lakes Trail Conference and the Onondaga chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club of which she was a charter member. In 1998, she donated a parcel of land on Fall Creek in McLean, NY to the Finger Lakes Land Trust. The Alice H. Thurber Nature Preserve is noted for its wealth of plant species, some being rare and endangered. Alice is survived by a son David, grandson Alex and twin great-grandsons, Jeremy Herald and Spencer Long, all of Teaneck, NJ. Her younger son Robert died in 2004. A Memorial Celebration of Her Life will be held Saturday afternoon, September 7th at 2 pm, at Kendal at Ithaca. Memorial gifts to environmental organizations such as the Finger Lakes Land Trust or Lime Hollow, or to Hospice of Ithaca would be appreciated. www.perkinsfuneralhome.com