Anna I. Roberts, community volunteer

Posted 3/20/13

Anna Ingersoll Roberts, 90, formerly of Whitemarsh, a longtime community volunteer, died March 10 of complications from a stroke eight days earlier at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr., where she had resided …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Anna I. Roberts, community volunteer

Posted

Anna Ingersoll Roberts, 90, formerly of Whitemarsh, a longtime community volunteer, died March 10 of complications from a stroke eight days earlier at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr., where she had resided since 1996.

Mrs. Roberts was a former president of the Women's Committee of the College of Physicians and was co-chair for four years during the 1960s of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania's Antiques Show, when it became a significant annual event for Philadelphia. She also worked on many fundraising projects for the Child Guidance Clinic of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

She served on the Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and for many years led tours in the museum as a volunteer guide for an ever-expanding range of galleries.

Mrs. Roberts was a direct descendant of Jared Ingersoll, a signer of the Constitution from Pennsylvania and the progenitor of a family prominent in Philadelphia Democratic circles from the time of Andrew Jackson until the presidency of Harry S. Truman.

Raised in Whitemarsh, she attended Shady Hill School in Chestnut Hill and graduated from Westover School in Middlebury, Conn. She was a graduate of Vassar College, where she was president of the class of 1943.

She worked at the War Labor Board in Philadelphia until her marriage to Brooke Roberts in 1944. Dr. Roberts, a surgeon at HUP, died in 2003.

An avid gardener, she was a lifelong member of the Weeders, a women's garden club that contributed to tree planting along the banks of the Schuylkill River.

She is survived by sons Jared, of Arlington, Va., Andrew, of Chestnut Hill, and Thomas, of Wyncote; sisters Gainor Miller, of Cathedral Village, and Ann Clay, of Arlington, Va., and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service was held March 15 at St. Asaph’s Church in Bala Cynwyd. Memorial donations may be made to the Ronald McDonald House, 3925 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104, or to St. Asaph’s Church, 27 Conshohocken State Road, Bala Cynwyd, PA. 19004. – WF

obituaries