The Board of Trustees and Officers of the National Institute of Social Sciences are saddened to inform you of the death of former National Institute Trustee, preservationist, and philanthropist Joan Kaplan Davidson. Ms Davidson passed away on August 11th in Hudson, New York. She was 96 years old.

In addition to many years of service to the National Institute as a Trustee and Officer, Ms Davidson served as chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts in the 1970s and as New York State parks commissioner in the 1990s. She served from 1977 to 1993 as president of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, a foundation established by her father, Jacob M. Kaplan, in 1945.

Ms Davidson was renowned as a fierce preservationist and civil rights advocate, focusing on New York City’s architecture, design and quality of life. Via her foundation, she established programs to support the arts, civil liberties, and human rights, as well as the conservation of natural resources and rural preservation in upstate New York.

From The New York Times:

To the end, Ms. Davidson expressed pride in positioning the Kaplan Fund at the center of New York life while other foundations based in the city tended to focus most of their grant making elsewhere.

“The great foundations have the whole world,” she said in 1997. “We have always just wanted to strike a blow for small, decisive things in a world of mega.”

She was a stalwart Trustee and generous supporter of the National Institute for many years, and we will miss her. Rest in peace.

Further Reading:

Joan Kaplan Davidson, Philanthropist Who Championed New York, Dies at 96

In 2021, a group of New York City preservation organizations hosted a book talk featuring It’s a Helluva Town: Joan K. Davidson, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, and the Fight for a Better New York, with author Roberta Brandes Gratz and Kaplan Foundation alum Anthony C. Wood. You can learn more about Ms Davidson’s impact on the historic built environment of New York City by watching the video below.