Dorothy Stokes Bostwick

Dorothy Stokes Bostwick Smith Campbell (March 26, 1899 – February 16, 2001) was an American heiress and an artist and author who became one of the first women in the United States to hold a helicopter pilot's license.

Dorothy Stokes Bostwick
Born
Dorothy Stokes Bostwick

(1899-03-26)March 26, 1899
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
DiedFebruary 16, 2001(2001-02-16) (aged 101)
Old Westbury, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s)
W. T. Sampson Smith
​
​
(m. 1922⁠–⁠1942)​

​
​
(m. 1950⁠–⁠1984)​
Children4
Parent(s)Albert Carlton Bostwick Sr.
Mary Lillian Stokes
RelativesA.C. Bostwick Jr. (brother)
Lillian Bostwick (sister)
Dunbar Bostwick (brother)
Pete Bostwick (brother)

Early life

Dorothy was born in Manhattan on March 26, 1899. She was the eldest of five children born to Mary Lillian (née Stokes) Bostwick and Albert Carlton Bostwick Sr.. Among her younger siblings was Albert C. Bostwick Jr.,[1] Lillian Bostwick Phipps, Dunbar Bostwick, and Pete Bostwick. Her father, a banker and sportsman, set early automobile speed records.[2] After Albert Sr.'s death in 1911, her mother remarried in 1914 to Fitch Gilbert Jr., a Harvard and Columbia Law School graduate and farmer and they lived at 801 Fifth Avenue.[3]

Her maternal grandfather, Henry Bolter Stokes, was president of the Manhattan Life Insurance Company, and her paternal grandfather, Jabez Bostwick, was a founder and treasurer of the Standard Oil and a partner of John D. Rockefeller.[4]

On the death of her father in 1911, Dorothy and her siblings inherited a sizeable fortune and upon the death of her grandmother, Helen Celia (née Ford) Bostwick, she received a considerable amount more.[5]

Career

Dorothy formally studied art and became an accomplished painter and sculptor. Her work was featured in shows across Washington and Sarasota and in Cooperstown, where she was a co-founder of the Cooperstown Art Association. In addition to being in the permanent collection of the Art Association, it is also in the collections of the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut and the Smithy Pioneer Gallery. Also an author, Dorothy wrote and illustrated "Passing Thoughts," a collection of her own poetry and drawings published in the early 1990s.[6]

She was also a skilled sailor and an aviation buff, in particular with the autogyro, a precursor to the modern helicopter. She became one of the first women in the United States to hold a helicopter pilot's license in 1942.

Personal life

On March 7, 1922, Bostwick was first married to William Thomas Sampson Smith (1900–1983) at Christ Church in Gilbertsville, New York (a town founded by her stepfather's family).[7] Smith's grandfather was the late Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, the Commander-in-Chief, North Atlantic Squadron and the Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy. Smith was a builder of Star Class racing yachts and, together, they were a fixture on the domestic and international racing circuit throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Before their 1942 divorce,[8][9] they lived at Leatherstocking Farm (on an 80-acre estate with a shingle style mansion designed by Squires & Wynkoop)[10] on Otsego Lake and in Short Hills, New Jersey, and were the parents of:

  • Suzanne Bostwick Smith, who married Lt. John Van Benschoten Dean in 1942.[11]
  • Dorothy Sampson Smith (1924–2010), who married Henry Rudkin Jr., son of Margaret Rudkin, who founded and owned Pepperidge Farm Inc.[12]
  • William Thomas Sampson Smith Jr. (1928–1994),[13][14] who married Judith Melrose Johnston in 1954.[15]
  • Henry Stokes Smith (1932–1932), who died in infancy.

In 1950, she was married to Joseph Campbell (1900–1984), the vice-president and treasurer of Columbia University. In 1953, they moved to Washington, D.C. when Campbell began serving as Atomic Energy Commissioner, until he was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to Comptroller General of the United States in 1953.[16]

Her first husband died in 1983 and her second husband Campbell died at their home in Sarasota, Florida in 1984.[16] Dorothy died in Sarasota on February 16, 2001.[17][18]

References
  1. "A.C. Bostwick, 79, Racing Figure Who Won the Preakness in 1931" (PDF). The New York Times. September 28, 1980. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  2. "ALBERT C. BOSTWICK". New-York Tribune. November 11, 1911. p. 7. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  3. "ENGAGEMENT HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED | Former Eau Claire Boy Will Wed Wealthy Society Leader of New York". Leader-Telegram. May 16, 1914. p. 5. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  4. Finn, Robin (7 June 2013). "A Private Listing at Candela-Designed 778 Park Avenue". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  5. "$29,264,181 TO HEIRS OF MRS. BOSTWICK; Widow of the Standard Oil Man Gives Practically All to Her Own Family. $350,000 GEM COLLECTION $20,000,000 in Standard Stock, $2,000,000 in Liberty Bonds--Fortune in Paintings and Furniture". The New York Times. November 5, 1921. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  6. Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1968: July-December. Library of Congress. Copyright Office. 1968. p. 1794. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  7. "MISS BOSTWICK WED TO SAMPSON SMITH | Daughter of Mrs. Fitch Gilbert Jr. Marries Grandson of Late Admiral Sampson" (PDF). The New York Times. July 4, 1922. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  8. "SOCIALITE DIVORCED". The San Francisco Examiner. July 25, 1942. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  9. "DECREES GRANTED". Reno Gazette-Journal. July 25, 1942. p. 12. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  10. "Caretakers cottage at Leatherstocking Farm". flickr.com/. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  11. "SUZANNE B. SMITH TO JOHN DEAN; She Is Bride of Lieutenant in Naval Reserve in Chantry of St. Thomas Church WEARS IVORY SATIN GOWN Miss Dorothy Smith Serves as Sister's Only Attendant Frank Pearson Best Man" (PDF). The New York Times. September 19, 1942. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  12. "DOROTHY SAMPSON SMITH RUDKIN". The Palm Beach Post. August 23, 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  13. "Son to Mrs. W.T. Sampson Smith" (PDF). The New York Times. June 16, 1928. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  14. The Freeman's Journal (Cooperstown, NY), Jan. 8, 1995, Page 10.
  15. "MISS JOHNSTON'S TROTH Cooperstown Girl to Be Wed to W. T. Sampson Smith Jr" (PDF). The New York Times. May 9, 1954. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  16. "Joseph Campbell, U.S. Aide; Led Accounting Office in 50's". The New York Times. 22 June 1984. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  17. "My Favorite Heiresses: A Bevy of Bostwicks". schoolfieldcountryhouse.com. October 31, 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  18. Blackman, Lynne (2018). Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection. p. 283. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
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