Cyrus Eaton Foundation
Bios of Former Trustees
Pam Neides is a long time friend of the Eaton Family. Pam is a personal stylist and Wardrobe consultant and owns her own company, Refinery. She has been an educator, teaching at Hathaway Brown School and tutoring high school students. As Vice President, she kept us organized and tracked applications. Pam was a member of grant committee. She enjoys hiking, photography, camping and concocting vegan delights
Ray Szabo
Ray Szabo became Cyrus Eaton's personal assistant in 1957 and worked closely with him until Cyrus Eaton died in 1979. He worked with him at the Terminal Tower during the year and at Deep Cove in the summers. His first connection with Cyrus Eaton Foundation was as secretary, and eventually he became president. He always kept us on task, had a positive attitude, and a passion for making a significant difference in the lives of others. With his wife Pat, he lived for many years in Virginia, and they moved to the West Side of Cleveland. He was chairman of Pugwash Park Commission which Cyrus Eaton founded in his birthplace in order to preserve Thinkers Lodge, now a national historical landmark, as a place celebrated for being the birth of the Pugwash Conferences of Science and World Affairs, which received the Novel Peace Prize in 1995.
Mary Stephens Eaton
Mary (Stevie) Eaton, daughter-in-law of Cyrus Eaton and classmate of Anne Eaton, was a trustee at Cyrus Eaton Foundation for many years. She brought her humor and passion for education and all kinds of learning to our group. For over 30 years, she taught at Hawken School where she mentored numerous teachers. Mary was devoted to teaching reading and study skills and advocated strongly for the importance of libraries. The Cyrus Eaton Foundation honored her by giving a grant to Hawken School that enables long-time faculty members to do something enriching to their lives.
Hester Butterfield
Hester, granddaughter of Cyrus Eaton, was a long time resident of Cleveland Heights, who now lives in Munich, Germany. She spent many summers with her grandfather in Deep Cove, Nova Scotia. As former president of the Cyrus Eaton Foundation, she focused her attention on health and welfare. Now she continues this work in Germany working to help the refugees resettle and find safety, work, and medical care. Hester has been a life-long crusader for justice and peace, organizing to end US involvement in Vietnam and marching to advocate nuclear disarmament. She traveled to Russia with Cyrus Eaton in the 1960s.
ANNE EATON
Ann Eaton married Cyrus Eaton in 1957. Together they traveled the world and passionately advocated for peace, women's rights, and dialogue between countries of conflicting political philosophies focusing on the moral necessity to end nuclear weapons. At the first Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, Anne was so welcoming to the participants from around the world that she was instrumental in breaking the ice and helping them to trust each other. Anne was a talented writer who recorded for news articles some of her experience with world leaders. As president of the Cyrus Eaton Foundation, she advocated for for the importance in assisting all areas of the arts because they develop participants' confidence, creativity, and artistic talents that lead to enriched lives. The Cyrus Eaton Foundation commemorated Anne Eaton's poignant influence on the rights of women with a gift to her alma mater, Hathaway Brown School.
CYRUS EATON, JR
Cy Eaton, Jr. , son of Cyrus Eaton, spent much of his life developing business relationships with Russia, Eastern Europe, and China, in the hopes that trade with these countries would allow them to understand each other and prevent them from destroying each other. Being a World War II pilot and two-year survivor of prison camp in Nazi Germany gave him first hand knowledge of the horrors of war. He attended Hawken School and Kent School whose motto "Simplicity of Life, Directness of Purpose, Self-Reliance" were mottos of his life. As president of the Cyrus Eaton Foundation, he particularly focused on the importance of educating our youth. Like his father, he listened carefully and asked thoughtful questions. After a major stroke, he valiantly fought to regain all his physical abilities and was able to help physical and occupational therapists learn just how much an elder stroke victim could regain with the right attitude. In his honor, the Cyrus Eaton Foundation, gave a gift to Hospice Western Reserve.
Barring Coughlin
Barring Coughlin, 94, prominent attorney with the law firm Thompson Hine, died in 2008. He deferred an offer from Thompson, Hine and Flory to be law clerk to Judge Harold M. Stephens, of the United States Court of Appeals, Washington, D.C., until 1939, at which time he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to be the 22nd lawyer of Thompson Hine. He had been admitted to the District of Columbia and the Ohio Bar and had been editor of the Cleveland Bar Journal.
He specialized in tax and acquisition matters for numerous corporations and represented a large international corporation before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990.
He represented the late Cyrus Eaton on numerous matters and remained on the board of the Cyrus Eaton Foundation until 2008.
Dr. Fay Lefevre
Fay Lefevre was married to Cyrus Eaton's daughter, Mary LeFevre. He was director of the Cleveland Clinic. "In 1955, the founding of the Cleveland Clinic Board of Governors reaffirms the principle of physician leadership. Fay LeFevre, MD, is appointed as the first Chairman. . . He was chairman for the next 13 exciting and formative years." He served on the Cyrus Eaton Board briefly. A lovely memorial garden for Fay and his wife Mary gives peace and respite at the Hospice of Western Reserve.