Shirle N. Westwater

After Shirle Westwater became the first woman to join the board at the Columbus Museum of Art, a fellow board member suggested that women didn’t really care about the arts.
And with that gauntlet thrown, Westwater went on to recruit 100 women to a new women’s board in under six months.
Daughter Cordelia Robinson related the anecdote yesterday as her mother was remembered as a crucial member of a generation that helped make Columbus culture what it is today.
Westwater died on Saturday at her home in Gulf Stream, Fla. She was 95.
“She was feisty,” Robinson said, also recalling the time her mother dyed her hair red for a party. “She was just passionate. She had fun living.”
Along with her devotion to the art museum, Westwater had a love for the Columbus Foundation, which her father, Hugh Emory Nesbitt, helped found in 1943.
She served on the foundation’s governing committee for 10 years and was chairwoman for two years. She joined the Junior League of Columbus, a nonprofit women’s group, when she was 21 and served as president for two years. She started the annual Bargain Box fundraising event, which ended last year after 65 years.
Westwater is known as the “grande dame” of the Columbus Foundation by the members of the staff who worked with her, said Doug Kridler, president and chief executive officer.
“She’s one of the most beloved and tireless figures in our history,” he said.
In the personal and civic realms, Westwater was “a member of the greatest generation of cultural standard bearers in Columbus,” said Kridler, likening her to “Queen Elizabeth with an incisive wit.”
“She kept her principles as tightly as she kept her style and her dignity,” he said. “Shirle was a joyful and classy singer of life.”
Westwater last visited the art museum in the fall to see a George Bellows exhibit, said Executive Director Nannette Maciejunes. She called Westwater one of the people who “made a huge difference in the Columbus that we live in today.”
“She’s an inspiration to another generation of people,” Maciejunes said. “I don’t think there’s anything better you can say about someone other than that they inspired another generation to do good in their community.”
Westwater was also an advocate for Ohio State University, where she had served on the board of the development fund. She attended more than 350 football games, the first when she was 3 and the last when she was 91. Her son Hugh Westwater said she went to her first games at North Field before the current Ohio Stadium was built and wore her patent-leather shoes despite the cold.
Westwater also helped establish the Glenmont nursing and retirement home in Hilliard and was a member of various garden and country clubs. She served on several boards, including those for the Columbus School for Girls, Columbus Academy and Columbus Symphony.
Westwater is survived by her daughters, Angela King Westwater (David Meitus) of New York and Cordelia Westwater Robinson (Grant Morrow) of Columbus; son Hugh Nesbitt Westwater of Columbus; daughter-in-law Lisa Miller Westwater of Gahanna; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by husband William King Westwater and son William Marc Westwater.
As a member of the Christian Science Church, she will be cremated, her son said, and the family will hold a private grave-side service. A celebration of her life is being planned for sometime this spring.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215-9605; the Little Traverse Conservancy, 3264 Powell Rd., Harbor Springs, MI 49740-9469; or the Columbus Foundation, Nesbitt-Westwater Fund, 1234 E. Broad St., Columbus OH 43205-1453.