In Memory of Deborah Ann Light (1935 – 2015)

Philanthropist Deborah Ann Light, a key figure in establishing Eastern Long Island’s Peconic Land Trust and pioneering Wiccan priestess, died on July 21, 2015.

Among her many charitable and educational projects was the Thanks Be To Grandmother Winifred Foundation. The Foundation, which she created in 1992, gave 321 grants over the next decade to individual women 54 and older for projects designed to enrich the lives of other adult women.

In 1996, Deborah contracted with Robert Giard to photograph the woman who had received Grandmother Winifred Grants. At the time of his death in July, 2002, while he was working on assignment for the Foundation, Giard had photographed 241 of the grantees. These portraits, along with Giard’s journal entries documenting his photo shoots and short descriptions of the woman’s projects, were published in The Grandmother Winifred Journals 1996-2002, edited by Sandra Ferguson and Deborah Ann Light.

The archives of the Thanks Be To Grandmother WinfredFoundation are held in the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

View a selection of the Grandmother Winifred portraits here.