Obituary for Deborah Post
February 1, 2021 in In Memoriam, Notes, Recent Deaths
Pam Huntington reports that DEBORAH POST (SY) passed away peacefully on Saturday (January 30, 2020) after a long bout with glioblastoma. Debbie served our class in many roles, most recently as class AYA representative from 2017 to 2019.
Pam has provided the following obituary:
Deborah Ann Post, proprietor of Riamede Farm in Chester, NJ, and of Manhattan, NY, passed away peacefully on Saturday, January 30, 2021.
Debbie ran Riamede, a pick-your-own apple farm, for over 20 years and oversaw two generations of children enjoy nature and learn about the growing cycle. As a member of the Farm Bureau and Morris County Board of Agriculture, Debbie actively promoted the interests of farmers as development threatened their way of life.
Debbie grew up just down the road from Riamede, graduating from West Morris High School. However, prior to returning to Chester as an adult and embracing her life as a farmer, Debbie was a trailblazer both in her educational achievements and her career on Wall Street. After spending her freshman year at Smith College, she transferred to Yale as one of the first women to be admitted as undergraduates in 1969. She received a BA magna cum laude in Philosophy from Yale College in 1972. She went on to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1976. After college, Debbie worked as an investment banker at The Chase Manhattan Bank, Lehman Brothers, Brown Brothers Harriman, Oppenheimer and Prudential Bache. She was among the first women hired in Corporate Finance at Lehman Brothers.
Althouth Debbie was a pro at analyzing a balance sheet, outside of work, her interests were diverse and surprising. She loved making pottery and her bowls and vases were treasured gifts. She kept a dressmaker’s mannequin in her Riverside Drive apartment to help her make her own patterns and clothing and loved fashion, especially the fashions of the late ’60’s and early ’70’s.
Debbie was an enthusiastic do-it-yourselfer. She loved to refinish furniture, choose her own investments and do her own taxes. She was also intrepid and backpacked through Asia and Africa, often traveling solo. When apple season was over, Debbie decamped to Aspen, Colorado where she would indulge in her love of skiing and where she formed a tight circle of friends. Debbie had spent summers as a child on the Jersey shore and never lost her love of the ocean, especially the Jersey shore. Debbie was an openhearted, generous and loyal friend, someone one could turn to with a problem. She made friends at every stage in her life; took great care to maintain her friendships; and loved to introduce a college friend to a work friend to an Aspen friend to a farm friend.
Nothing daunted Debbie. When diagnosed with brain cancer, she eagerly sought out clinical trials and took a great interest in the science behind the treatments, deriving satisfaction in knowing that she could be advancing medical knowledge.
It was Debbie’s ardent wish that Riamede continue as a pick-your-own apple farm after her death. For those of you who look forward to a fall outing at Riamede, rest assured that you’ll still find her trusted farm manager, Jamie Bourgeois, driving the hay wagon, and her cousin Sally tending the cash register in the store. Neighbors Chris and Ashley Asdal O’Keefe will be joining them in running the farm.
Debbie is survived by her sister Sarah Post of Oregon; her stepdaughters Karen Morison of California and Dale Morison of Idaho; her step-granddaughter Andie Ramos; her aunt Helen Mackay Musler; and her cousins Sally L. York, Judy M. Fogarty and Gary Musler all of Barrington, New Hampshire; and scores of friends from every walk of her life, from Hong Kong to Colorado to Chester, NJ.
Debbie was predeceased by her husband, Robert Morison, and her parents Janet Mackay Post and John F Post.
A memorial gathering will be held in Debbie’s honor when it is safe for her friends and family to mingle. If you wish to make a donation in Debbie’s honor, there are three charities which reflect Debbie’s life. Alzheimer’s ran in the Post family, and Debbie had been participating in Columbia Presbyterian’s Taub Center’s research in this cruel disease. https://www.givenow.columbia.edu/?_sa=10584&_sd=523#. Debbie spent most of her life in Chester and was a strong believer in a liberal arts education. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Festival of Trees, a Chester event supporting the Senior Resource Center, which provides help to seniors and their caretakers (https://srcnj.org/events/), or to a scholarship for female transfer students established by the 156 women in the Yale class of 1972 (https://giving.yale.edu/ways-to-give/how-to-gift). ; Please be sure to specify « Class of 1972 Women’s Scholarship ».
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