L.F. Boker Doyle died at home on December 30, 2024, at the age of 93, in New York City, where he was born on April 23, 1931. His parents moved to Locust Valley, L.I., and then to High Farms, Glen Head, where Boker spent most of his childhood and developed a deep love of nature.
In time, he learned taxidermy, collected butterflies, and became a devoted birder and a serious trout and salmon fly-fisherman. Boker attended the Greenvale School, Hotchkiss, and Yale, graduating with a BA in 1953.
After a peaceful stint as a Marine lieutenant in occupied Japan, he joined Smith, Barney & Co., becoming a director in 1970. He joined the Fiduciary Trust Co. in 1974, becoming president and chairing the executive committee before retiring in 1996.
He served on the American Museum of Natural History board, where he won acclaim for conducting the museum’s first auction. He also served on the boards of the Frick Collection, the New School, and the Nature Conservancy; as a director of the Hudson River Foundation and the Taconic Foundation; as chairman of the Cultural Institution Retirement System; and as president of the Anglers Club and the Century Association.
He had the great good fortune to marry Susanna Stone in 1959 and to be together with her for 64 years until her death. With friends and neighbors from the Upper West Side, Boker and Susanna co-founded the West Side Montessori School in 1963. They loved the Metropolitan Opera, traveling, birdwatching, and the city of New York. They lived in Manhattan, Katonah, NY, and Fishers Island, NY.
He is survived by their four daughters: Katharine Temple Lapsley, Nancy McCormick, Victoria Jane and Jessica Delius; three sons-in-law, Tim Weiner, Gerard Schmidt, and Joshua Starbuck, and six grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at a later date. Please consider making a donation in Boker’s memory to the Nature Conservancy.
Published by New York Times on Jan. 12, 2025
