Josie Robertson dies

Josie Robertson

By Mark Wineka

mwineka@salisburypost.com

Josephine "Josie" Tucker Robertson, wife of Salisbury native and internationally known hedge fund manager and philanthropist Julian Robertson Jr., died Tuesday at her home in New York City.

She was 67 and had put up a long fight against breast cancer.

It was in his wife's honor — and as a surprise — that Julian Robertson gave $25 million to New York's Lincoln Center in 1998.

The plaza outside the Lincoln Center bears her name.

Robertson said at the time it's one of New York's most beautiful spots, and it was lucky to have his wife's name.

With an $18 million initial endowment, Julian Robertson Jr. established the Blanche and Julian Robertson Family Foundation in 1997 in honor of his late parents, longtime Salisbury residents. The foundation, overseen by a mostly local board of directors, has become Rowan County's foremost charitable organization over the past dozen years.

David Setzer, executive director of the foundation, said he learned of Josie Robertson's death Tuesday afternoon in an e-mail from Julian's sister, Wyndham. He informed members of the board of directors after receiving that notice.

The Robertsons had been married for 38 years and had three boys: Spencer of Brooklyn, Jay of Hawk's Bay, New Zealand; and Alexander of Manhattan.

The daughter of Robert and Josephine "Pimmie" Spencer Tucker, Josie Robertson was born May 16, 1943, in San Antonio, and graduated from Saint Mary's Hall there in 1961.

She later attended Briarcliff College and graduated from the University of Texas in 1965.

Before her marriage to Robertson in 1972, Josie Robertson and her sister-in-law started and managed Tuckertown, a business designing and producing Christmas-tree ornaments sold to leading department stores.

Known throughout her life for her artistic talents and creativity, she collaborated with her husband to build two golf-course resorts in New Zealand, which they designed from scratch, beginning in the 1990s.

According to a press release, hers was the eye behind the impeccable style of the two award-winning lodges built near the golf courses. An avid golfer, she was the 2006 women's champion at Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, NY.

She also was a wizard with flowers and loved arranging them when entertaining friends and family. Described as gracious, lighthearted and kind, she masked a formidable set of organizational skills which she put to work as a mother of three sons and as a volunteer in New York City.

Josie Robertson joined the Women's Board of The Boys' Club of New York in 1978, served as its president, and in 2000 was elected to its board of trustees. In 2007, when she was the honoree at its annual spring dance, a group of friends raised money in her honor for the Boys' Club's Josie Robertson School of Music and Art.

She also was on the Board of Overseers of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center since 2004 and was a director of Classroom Inc. from 1999-2008, before serving as an honorary director and chairing the Classroom Inc. Council.

In 1996, the Robertsons established the Robertson Foundation which supports education, medical research, religion and spirituality, and environmental causes. She and her husband were leading supporters also of the Central Park Conservancy, where she joined the board of the Women's Committee in 1997.

In 1998 they funded the restoration of the 59th Street Pond and its surrounding landscape.

In addition to her husband and sons, she is survived by Spencer's wife, Sarah, and their three children, Hollis, Hart and Wyndham; two sisters, Mary Cassell of Albuquerque and Julia Rasmussen of Houston; and two brothers, Robert Tucker of San Antonio and George Tucker of Midland.

The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Bartholomew's Church, 325 Park Ave., N.Y. Visitation will be from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. at Frank Campbell Funeral Home, 1076 Madison Ave. Thursday.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Boys Club of New York, Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, and PAVE Academy Charter School.