Hospital and war bonds volunteer with deep connections to Long Island. Funds at The Trust support disability causes and human justice.
Margaret S. Winthrop (1904-1985)
Robert Winthrop (1904-1999)
Both Margaret Stone Winthrop and her husband, Robert, were born in Boston but established strong ties to Long Island and particularly to the Island’s first hospital—founded in 1895—where they volunteered for decades. In the mid-1980s, it was renamed Winthrop-University Hospital in their honor.
Margaret was born in Boston in 1904 to Charles Augustus Stone and the former Mary Adams. Charles Augustus Stone was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and a partner in the construction and engineering firm Stone & Webster.
During World War I, Stone & Webster built the Hog Island, Pennsylvania, shipyards, which assembled more than 100 vessels. In the late 1920s, they branched out into investments and merged with Blodget. Charles was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the First National Bank of Boston, and the Union Pacific Railroad. Margaret’s brother, Whitney, later took over Stone & Webster and Blodget, which went on to build the first commercial nuclear reactor in Shippingport, Pennsylvania.
Early on, Margaret had a strong connection with Long Island. Her family had a summer home in Locust Valley called Solana. She attended Miss Chapin’s School in Manhattan and Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut. In 1926, she married R. Colgate Vernon Mann on Long Island. They divorced in 1941.
Robert was born January 21, 1904, to Frederic Bayard Winthrop and the former Dorothy Amory, who later divorced. Robert and his father were direct descendants of John Winthrop, founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. When Robert graduated from Harvard College in 1926, he was the tenth generation of his family to do so. In 1928, he married Theodora Ayer, and they had three daughters, Theodora “Dora,” Elizabeth Amory, and Cornelia “Nina.”
Margaret and Robert wed in 1942 at Riverside Church in Manhattan. The couple made their home in a white-washed brick Colonial-style mansion in Old Westbury, Long Island. Glen Oaks Golf Club now occupies most of their former estate.
Early in their marriage, Margaret described her career as welfare work in social services. During World War II, she was chairman of the Nassau County American Women’s Voluntary Services and collected $1.6 million for a war bond drive. She and her team sold bonds at the Westbury and Belmont racetracks and had bond booths at various events. She later served as the New York State vice chairman of American Women’s Voluntary Services and as its national finance committee chairman.
During the war, Robert was an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. From 1945 until his retirement in 1969, he worked at Wood, Struthers & Winthrop, a Wall Street stock brokerage and investment banking firm. His grandfather and namesake, Robert Winthrop, was a founder.
The younger Robert, an avid salmon fisherman, helped establish the International Atlantic Salmon Foundation. He also was a board member of the New York Zoological Society and the North American Wildlife Foundation, a member of the Long Island State Parks Commission, and a trustee for more than 20 years for the Village of Old Westbury. An active alumnus of Harvard, Robert served on committees for undergraduate education and the medical school. In 1983, Harvard awarded him an honorary doctorate degree.
Robert’s uncle and aunt were active volunteer trustees of what originally was called Nassau Hospital in Mineola. Robert was a hospital board member for more than 60 years and its president for 12 years. From the 1940s to the early 1980s, Robert and Margaret were committed volunteers. Margaret was referred to as an “unpaid trustee.” When it was renamed Winthrop-University Hospital in their honor in 1985, hospital officials noted that the couple had 83 years of volunteer service between them.
Margaret died November 4, 1985, and Robert died September 25, 1999, at age 95.
In 2017, the hospital became affiliated with NYU Langone Health, and three years later the name was changed to NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island. (But many longtime Long Islanders still refer to it simply as “Winthrop.”)
The unrestricted fund Margaret Winthrop set up at The Trust has helped expand a theater program for people with developmental disabilities, train home health aides about hearing loss, and fund a campaign to close Rikers Island.
