ELIZABETH "BETH" CURRY

CURRY--Beth Rivers, died peacefully at home in Manhattan on Monday, surrounded by her family. Raised on a farm in Chesterfield, SC, the first of five children, she grew up feeding chickens and exploring the hills nearby. She attended Queens College in Charlotte, graduating as student body president and valedictorian. Beth married, raised her family, and then, when her children were older, returned to Queens for business school. Soon after, she co-founded Eagle Capital Management in New York, now a $25 billion investment firm, which manages money for families, universities, foundations, and pension funds. Even as she helped build a large investment firm and sat on the boards of many institutions, Beth remained true to her South Carolina values. Eschewing the combative, confrontational style of high finance, she brought a purposeful, friendly, common-sense skepticism to Wall Street. Her disarming southern accent and small stature masked a probing, persistent, analytic intelligence. She had a wide, warm and genuine curiosity of everyone she met--from CEOs to cab drivers to strangers' children--and took as much pleasure stumbling upon a strange mushroom or beautiful moss growing in the woods as discovering new investment opportunities. Her sensitivity to every individual helped the Eagle staff challenge each other without fracture for 27 years in an industry sometimes characterized by short-term relationships and rapid turnover. Beth sometimes regretted not being a scientist and later in life took great pleasure in spending time with researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University, on whose boards she served. She was grateful to Queens for helping her make the transition from homemaker to financial executive; she served as a trustee of the college, starting in 1986 and received their Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award in 2008. In 1995 she joined the board of the Hyde and Watson Foundation, providing capital to hundreds of arts, education, healthcare, and social service organizations. Church community has always been an important part of Beth's life, and most recently she was a trustee at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Before entering the workforce, she was a devoted community volunteer who helped build the Summit Childcare Center, New Jersey's first modern infant care and pre-K facility for working mothers. Above all, Beth was a great storyteller and wit, inherited from her father and cultivated in a large Southern farm family. She could transfix friends and family by turning some small forgettable moment into an unforgettable yarn. She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Ravenel Boykin Curry III, who was also her business partner for 27 years; her three children, Ravenel Boykin Curry IV, Caroline Rivers Curry (Rob Davis), and Marshall Anderson Curry (Elizabeth Martin); her seven grandchildren, Ravenel V, Zinnia, Wick, Jackson, Quinton, Jane and Rivers; and her siblings, Jay Rivers (Cathryn), Rebecca Sullivan (Burr) and Melinda Ford (Tommy). She was predeceased by her sister Carolyn Query. A memorial service will be held on Monday, November 23 at 11:15am at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made to: Weill Cornell Medicine; The Rockefeller University; or Queens University of Charlotte.