Anne B.R. Witherby

Anne Byrd (Reed) Witherby, long active in civic affairs in Boston, died on December 11, 2016, at the age of 97. She grew up in New York City, and graduated from Radcliffe College in 1947. She also lived on Tuckernuck Island, Nantucket, MA and in Narragansett, R.I.

From the 1960s through the 1990s, she was a liberal member of the Massachusetts Republican Party, serving as a State Committeewoman and a delegate to several Republican National Conventions.

Mrs. Witherby served as an overseer of the Museum of Science, a board member of the Boston Eye and Ear Infirmary, and a board member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She was a lay member of the first Institutional Review Board at the Massachusetts General Hospital, a member of the board of associates of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and a lay member of the NIH Subcommittee on Human Gene Therapy. She also was principal editor of the 100-year History of the Parliamentary Law Club (1907-2007). In 1996, she founded Light Boston, Inc., a non-profit group dedicated to lighting the facades of Boston's historic buildings, monuments and bridges, and served as its President until 2005.

Her husband of 70 years, Frederick R.H. Witherby, died in 2013. Her three sisters also predeceased her. She is survived by two sons, Frederick Witherby, Jr., and Reed Witherby, by four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Services will be private. Memorial contributions may be made to Light Boston, Inc., 139A Charles St., #314, Boston MA 02114, or to the Tuckernuck Land Trust, Inc., Six Ash Lane, P.O. Box 1093, Nantucket, MA 02554.