Founded Montgomery vineyard
MONTGOMERY — Miriam LaFollette Summerskill, founder of LaFollette Vineyard and a prolific writer and memoirist, died Thursday at home at LaFollette Vineyard in Harlingen. She was 90.
With her husband, Dr. John Summerskill, Mrs. Summerskill founded LaFollette Vineyard and Winery in the 1970s.
Her seyval blanc wine won numerous awards and was served at the White House, the National Gallery of Art, Drumthwacket, and Prospect House at Princeton University. The annual grape harvest at LaFollette Vineyard was a combined work and social event.
For a number of years the Summerskill vineyard was an active center for political and policy discussions among friends, relatives, professors, scholars, and ambassadors, as well as political candidates and senators, congressmen and mayors, who engaged in lively discussion surrounded by10,000 grape vines.
During the 1992 presidential campaign, Gov. Jim Florio chose to host Bill Clinton and 16 other governors for a four-hour strategy session at LaFollette Vineyard.
Spending a number of years in Greece at Athens College where her husband was president, Mrs. Summerskill was involved in the creation of the Athens College Theater, considered the finest in Athens at the time of its completion.
Mrs. Summerskill also founded and served as president of InterALP of Princeton, an educational program which sent high school students abroad for semester-long work-study experience; served on the board of Middlesex-Somerset-Mercer Regional Study Council; was a familiar figure at CommUniversity; and was a member of the Nassau Club.
Author of several books, “Aegean Summer, Seduced By A Greek Island,” “The Land of Solomon and Sheba,” and “Daughter of the Vine,” Mrs. Summerskill also wrote numerous magazine and newspaper articles during her travels to more than 80 countries.
As a young woman, Mrs. Summerskill hosted a radio show for NBC from Honolulu, and in the 1950s hosted several shows for KQED in San Francisco during the early years of educational television.
Born in Moscow, Idaho, she grew up in Colfax, Wash.
A 1941 graduate of Stanford University, Mrs. Summerskill settled near the university after her husband, Richard U. Wright, completed his World War II military service. She raised her five children in Menlo Park, Calif., was active in a number of organizations and started several businesses.
In the late 1960s she married Dr. John Summerskill, the then president of San Francisco State University, with whom she moved to Ethiopia and Athens, Greece, before settling in Montgomery Township.
Mrs. Summerskill is survived by her children, Richard L. Wright, Helen U. Bodel and Wendy L. Wright, all of Princeton, William U. Wright of Montgomery and Robert L. Wright of Hopewell; and eight grandchildren.
Private burial is scheduled for today. A memorial service will be held at a later date.