DARTMOUTH, MA - Karen Gallup Lloyd, noted South Coast philanthropist, died early Tuesday morning, December 22, 2009, at her home in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. She was 85 years old.
Karen was the daughter of the late Katharine Nordell Lloyd and the late Demarest Lloyd. She was the last grandchild of Henry Demarest Lloyd, noted social reformer of Chicago, IL.
She was born in London, England, where her father served as a foreign correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. When Mr. Lloyd was transferred back to Washington, D.C., Karen spent her childhood years living in the family residence on R Street and summer home at Potomska Point, South Dartmouth, where she was a champion Beetle Cat racer.
Throughout her life, Karen had many avid interests. She was a classical pianist, photographer, hunter, pilot of single engine and glider aircraft, student of yoga, patron of the arts, and practitioner of Christian Science. She spoke several languages fluently and traveled the world extensively. But, her main passion was to enjoy nature and observe animal life, including a Safari she undertook in Africa with noted primatologist, Jane Goodall. Later in her life, when wolves were reintroduced to Montana, she took friends on a special trip to observe them in their new habitat.
In 1953, Karen, along with her mother and late sister, Angelica Lloyd Russell, gave a 224-acre parcel of land to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The land, known as the Demarest Lloyd State Park, was donated to honor both her father, Demarest Lloyd, and her brother, Demarest Lloyd, Jr., who was a Navy fighter pilot killed in action over Guam in 1944.
Early in her adult life, Karen owned ranches in Colorado and New Mexico where she raised steer, hunted elk, communed with coyotes, and taught kindergarten.
But it was the south coast of Massachusetts where her family had summered, that captured her heart and imagination and set the direction for her life's work. She spent the rest of her life hereas an advocate for the environment.
Mrs. Lloyd, known to her friends and associates simply as KG, was an early pioneer in environmental education. After the death of her husband, she donated the home they had built in Chaypee Woods to the Dartmouth Land Trust, thereby founding the Lloyd Center for the Environment as a living memorial to her mother. The center has been serving the public and South Coast school systems since it opened in 1981.
Education and the environment have been the principle beneficiaries of KG's philanthropic efforts. She supported and served on the Board of Directors at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and she supported the Eco Systems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA.
For her philanthropy and foundation work, Ms. Lloyd was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. She also received an Honorary Doctoral Degree from Colorado College, where she provided student scholarships and funding for the Demarest Lloyd Lecture Series. Additionally, she helped to develop and support courses in environmental studies at the college in companion with the Lloyd Center for the Environment.
Her support for the Tuft's School of Veterinary Medicine resulted in collaboration between the veterinary school and the Lloyd Center in Project Seanet. The project, made up primarily of volunteers, monitors seabirds that have died along the shore and tries to determine the cause of death as an early warning network of dangers to estuary and marine life. Seanet, along with the Turn the Tide Project she funded, has given the coastal regions of Dartmouth a resurgence of aviary wildlife.
While giving her time, talent and gifts to the communities in which she lived, KG also gave generously to her family and friends.
They will miss her sharp wit, no holds barred movie trivia games, stimulating conversations, and engaging political dialogues that began with her participation in Civil Rights marches in the 1960s as a prominent member of the NAACP in Colorado Springs, CO.
Mrs. Lloyd is survived by her daughter, Laura Bross Carey of Santa Fe, New Mexico; her son, Stephen Demarest Rath of Denver, Colorado; five grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and 5 step children. She is pre-deceased by two daughters, Lynn Trayser and Christina Nordell Rath.
Funeral service will be held on Monday, January 4, 2010, at 11:00 a.m., at the Congregational Church, 17 Middle St., Padanaram Village, South Dartmouth, MA.
In lieu of flowers, and in respect for the environment, donations can be sent to the Lloyd Center for the Environment, 430 Potomska Rd., South Dartmouth, MA 02748.
Arrangements are by the Wilson Chapel, 479 Country St., New Bedford, MA