Many in Santa Barbara are mourning the passing of Leslie Ridley-Tree, one of the area’s most prolific and best-known philanthropists, who died Monday morning.
Also a highly successful businesswoman and well-known art connoisseur, Ridley-Tree had been ill the past few months, according to an announcement from All Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, which she had attended for decades.
Ridley-Tree, along with her late husband, Paul, generously supported dozens of nonprofit organizations and causes in the Santa Barbara area, many of which bear their name in recognition.
The Ridley-Trees married in 1988, and subsequently moved from Los Angeles to Montecito, where Leslie immediately began pursuing her charitable endeavors.
A Google search of her name turns up item after item recounting her many financial contributions to causes large and small. They include entities dealing with health care, education, the arts, social services and more.
Ridley-Tree, who was in her 90s, made significant gifts over the years to Cottage Health, the Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse, the Dream Foundation, Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara, the Music Academy of the West, Sansum Clinic, Santa Barbara City College, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, the Santa Barbara Symphony, the Santa Barbara Zoo, UC Santa Barbara, Westmont College and the Community Kitchen.
She established more than 120 scholarships at different educational institutions, including Westmont, where she was a member of the Westmont Music Council. She also received numerous honors over the years for her philanthropic works in the community.
The Ridley-Trees took on the title of lord and lady a number of years ago after Paul reportedly inherited the title from a distant Irish relative.
Early in her career, Ridley-Tree was the director of a community center on New York City’s Westside, and is credited with establishing the first Head Start center. She also set up a school for teens expelled from school.
“She’s one of the most remarkable human beings to walk the face of the earth, and I loved being with her,” Westmont President Gayle Beebe told Noozhawk. “She could be serious and she could be incredibly joyful and funny, all in the same conversation.
“Every time we were together I would come away with a deeper appreciation for driving issues, a richer understanding of life, and a greater commitment to efforts that make life so worth living. She was always looking for the best in situations without ever glossing over the difficulties. She made everyone of us better, both our lives, and our contribution.”
Ed Birch, president and CEO of the Mosher Foundation, was equally effusive.
“Lady Leslie was an amazing person,” he said. “She personified philanthropy in our community, where she not only committed her wealth to the benefit of others, but was significant in getting others to give.
“Deep in her faith, her grace, giving spirit and commitment of service to others will not be forgotten. Our community was blessed with her presence. She will be missed.”
Birch added that she had no personal cause she wanted advanced nor did she have a personal business that would benefit from her giving.
“As a person of faith, she did it because it helped others,” he said. “It was the right thing to do.”
Dr. Kurt Ransohoff, CEO and chief medical officer at Sansum Clinic, said Ridley-Tree had an outsized impact on the local health-care community, especially in the area of patient care.
“Her philanthropy in health care alone extended from individual recipients of health-care scholarships to organizations of all sizes,” he said. “From nonprofits that focus on research and patient support like the Alzheimer’s Association or American Heart Association or the Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara to those that provide patient care, like the SB Neighborhood Clinics, Cottage Health, the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center and Sansum Clinic.
“Nearly every patient in our community has been touched in some way by her generosity.”
Ransohoff noted he “personally will miss her friendship, and I know her loss will be felt by many.”
The Rev. Hank Mitchel, interim rector at All Saints Church, said Ridley-Tree “was gracious in every way.”
“She found solace and great joy in the music, prayers and traditions of the church,” he said. “As with all people of faith, she found, through her church attendance, strength for her journey, as she let her faith guide her in a caring and generous life.”
“Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree touched the lives of so many people through her generous gifts to dozens of charitable organizations and institutions,” said Jackie Carrera, President & CEO of the Santa Barbara Foundation, which named her woman of the year in 2003. “She shared not only her resources but her heart, leaving a legacy of compassion for which Santa Barbara and the Central Coast will always be grateful.”
Ridley-Tree is survived by her daughter, Suzette, who was at her side when she died.
Funeral services were pending.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.