Deborah Wood Davis

Deborah Wood Davis, 97, passed away September 1 surrounded by her family at her home at Kendal, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Born in Minneapolis, she lived for over 50 years in Shrewsbury and Red Bank, New Jersey, where she raised her family, before moving to Kendal in 2007.

Debbie graduated from Greenwich Academy in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia. After raising her five daughters, she worked for many years as a real estate broker with the Hazelton Agency in New Jersey. She volunteered for educational and charitable organizations, including the Monmouth County (NJ) Division of Social Services, as a Senior Warden of the All Saints’ Memorial Church in Atlantic Highlands, NJ, and she was the first woman to serve as a Trustee of the Rumson Country Day School in Rumson, NJ.

She was devoted to her family and will be deeply missed by those that knew and loved her.

She was predeceased by her husband of 40 years William Shippen Davis, Jr. in 1984. She was also predeceased by her brother Benjamin Wood in 2016 and her son Shippen in 1958. Surviving are her five daughters and their spouses, Deborah Davis and Michael Friedmann of New Haven, CT, Sarah and Frank Geer of Plymouth, MA, Nina and Harry Pollock of Hancock, NH, Caroline and Samuel Chapin of Plymouth, MA and Phoebe and Douglas Kitson of West Chester, PA; and grandchildren, Eli Friedmann, Phoebe Geer, Samuel Geer, Emily Pollock, Mary Pollock, William Pollock, Meg Chapin, Anna Chapin, Lavinia Kitson and Benjamin Kitson; and four great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held on November 10 at 2 p.m. at the Wildlands Trust in Plymouth, Massachusetts. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be made to the charity of one’s choice or to the Wildlands Trust, 675 Long Pond Road, Plymouth, MA 02360.