Skip to main content

Alice Netter, Philanthropist

Thu, 07/28/2022 - 09:22

Dec. 16, 1934 - July 22, 2022

Alice Netter’s strong interest in psychology and family health made her a leading force behind the fund-raising efforts of the Ackerman Institute for the Family, one of the foremost institutions for family therapy and a highly regarded training facility for family therapists in the United States.

A board member of the institute for more than 25 years, Ms. Netter, a Manhattan resident and longtime East Hampton Village homeowner, chaired its theater benefit, co-chaired its Tribute to Families gala, and raised significant funds for its clinic, training scholarships, and general fund.

Also on the board of the Mount Sinai Hospital Health System and a trustee of the Beth Israel Medical Center, she was instrumental in the development of Beth Israel’s Alice and Richard Netter Simulation Training Center, which enables hospital residents and surgeons to sharpen their skills.

In East Hampton, she was a trustee of Guild Hall, and served on its benefits and nominating committees. She died at her home here on July 22 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87, after a 15-month illness.

“She surrounded herself with beauty, and was an extraordinary collector with a keen and discerning eye,” said her family. Her collections included majolica, antique hat forms, ironstone, antique bird cages, brass shoes, cranberry glass, and modern and contemporary art.

Gardening was another passion. “Her gardens were magnificent,” the family said, “only to be outdone by the floral arrangements she created from them, as centerpieces for her dinner parties.”

“A woman of true elegance, an ultimate hostess, and a true friend to so many,” she was also remembered as an expert bridge player. She was a member of the by-invitation-only Regency Whist Club on the Upper East Side.

Ms. Netter was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 16, 1934, to Harry Keiser and the former Ruth Lefcort. She grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and attended Skidmore College. She and Richard Netter, an attorney, were married on April 5, 1970; they bought their house on Jericho Lane in 1977. Mr. Netter died in 2009.

Two daughters, Laurie Sprayregen of Manhattan and East Hampton, and Patricia Shiland of Manhattan and the Caribbean island St. Martin, survive. She also leaves three grandchildren, Jim Sprayregen, Dale Sprayregen, and Devon Shiland, and a brother, Robert Keiser of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

A memorial service was held on Tuesday at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan. The family has suggested memorial donations to the Alice Netter Endowed Scholarship Fund, online at giving.mountsinai.org/alicenetter, or by mail to Mount Sinai Office of Development, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1049, New York 10029.

 

Villages

Springs Food Pantry Sees the Need, Addresses It

The last few years have presented challenges the Springs Food Pantry’s founders could not have anticipated when it was first established. More than 600 families are now registered to receive the assistance it provides, and an average of 355 families are served each week.

Jun 26, 2025

A Newsletter on Being a Jew in Today’s America

One of the essential roles of religion, Rabbi Jan Uhrbach of the Bridge Shul in Bridgehampton said this week, is to “help us hold onto our humanity, and remind us of the higher values that go beyond money and power and position and all of those things, in a time when the values that I hold dear are not only being violated, they’re being rejected as values.”

Jun 26, 2025

Item of the Week: The Hemerocallis Garden, 1962

Hemerocallis may be an unfamiliar term, but the garden adjacent to Clinton Academy once bore the name. This photo shows the gate to the garden some two decades after its establishment in 1941.

Jun 26, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.