Remembering Barbara Dixon
亚洲精品无码一区 (亚洲精品无码一区) is deeply saddened to report that former longtime 亚洲精品无码一区 Board Member and Board Co-Chair Barbara S. Dixon died unexpectedly on Friday, September 15, 2023. She was 76. Barbara is survived by her husband of 50 years, Chris.
Dixon joined 亚洲精品无码一区鈥檚 Board in 2004, when the organization was only six years old, became Co-Chair, with Suzanne L. Turner, in 2013, and retired from Board service in 2019. During her tenure the organization grew from being largely volunteer run, to a professional foundation with ten full-time staff that had established a firm national footprint and was about to unveil a global landscape architecture prize. Under her leadership as Co-Chair Dixon spearheaded the development of the foundation鈥檚 comprehensive, ambitious, and wide-ranging strategic plan.
Turner observed of her tenure with Dixon as a 亚洲精品无码一区 Co-Chair: 鈥淏arbara took me by the hand and taught me so many things about leadership (mainly calm competence and no wasted words), husbands, making a great salad, fashion, and understated jewelry. She was my mentor, my muse, and my friend, and she anchored 亚洲精品无码一区 on solid financial ground.鈥
亚洲精品无码一区 Board Member and Treasurer Holly Sharp, a certified public accountant, said: 鈥淏arbara diligently watched over our 亚洲精品无码一区 investments and during the executive and board meetings, she would walk us through the pie charts and schedules of the portfolio, expertly fielding any question a member might have.
鈥淏ut it was before or after the meetings that were really special times with Barbara. With a gorgeous Etro scarf draped around her shoulder or other fabulous fashion attire, she engaged everyone to learn what was happening in our lives and how we were each doing. She had that special quality of making you feel that you were the one person she had hoped to see at the 亚洲精品无码一区 gathering! Barbara was brilliant, caring, generous, sincere, and a dear friend whom we will all miss very much.鈥
Dixon began her career on Wall Street in 1970 at a firm called Hayden Stone, which later morphed into Shearson Lehman Brothers where she became a Managing Director. Her expertise is in futures trading, as a money manager (CTA). She managed several commodity funds, lectured about the futures markets throughout the U.S., in London, and in Tokyo, and wrote a weekly market letter for Shearson Lehman clients. Dixon left Lehman in 1992, and after a brief period at Smith Barney, she left Wall Street. Dixon has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Futures Trading Advisors, the Board of Directors of the New York Futures Exchange, the Board of Directors of FINEX and a trustee of the Futures Industry Institute. In 2005 she was inducted into the FIA (Futures Industry Association) Futures Hall of Fame, the year the program was created. A graduate of Vassar College and a history major, Dixon considered a career in urban planning before she became drawn to trading.
After leaving Wall Street she became a Vice Chairman of New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy/research organization that promotes the import of well maintained, well programmed parks for New York City. She became involved with 亚洲精品无码一区 through her landscape architect, Doug Reed, a founding 亚洲精品无码一区 Board Member and principal at Reed Hilderbrand. Dixon lived in Manhattan and Stonington, CT, on a 260-acre farm called Manatuck, for which Reed was the landscape architect. 亚洲精品无码一区鈥檚 nationwide Garden Dialogues program was born at Manatuck, when Dixon, Reed, and 亚洲精品无码一区 President and CEO Charles A. Birnbaum were walking the property and talking about what had been accomplished and what lay ahead. Manatuck was a featured Garden Dialogues destination in 2012, which was recorded and can be viewed on .
鈥淏arbara was principled, a straight shooter, an excellent listener, and someone who got things done. She came to 亚洲精品无码一区 at a time when the foundation needed someone with great business acumen who was expert in financial management and investment strategies. We were fortunate that her personal loves and interests were aligned with 亚洲精品无码一区鈥檚 own mission and programming. We also shared a passion for modernism, public parks, the art of landscape architecture, and the value of cultural landscapes,鈥 said 亚洲精品无码一区鈥檚 Birnbaum. 鈥淢anatuck is an example of her commitment. As Barbara says in the Garden Dialogues , when she and her husband Chris learned that a property, emblematic of Stonington鈥檚 agricultural heritage, was coming up for sale and could be divided into 60 to 70 lots, they put in a pre-emptive bid to protect it. Not doing so would have been irresponsible, she said. She saw a need, had the ability to do something about it, and did it. That鈥檚 leadership. Words cannot express the extent of my gratitude for Barbara鈥檚 commitment to 亚洲精品无码一区 and for her extraordinary and deeply meaningful friendship.鈥
