Anthony G. W. Palmer ’81 died on April 28, 2024, in Tyringham, Massachusetts.
Anthony George Walter Palmer ’81
(The following was provided by the Berkshire Eagle on May 04, 2024:)
Tonio, formally Anthony George Walter Palmer, died at home in Tyringham on April 28, surrounded by his family. His joyful life on Earth was ended too soon, by a rare cancer, ocular melanoma.
Born in New York City on December 4th, 1958, to Elisabeth and Walter deKay Palmer, Tonio grew up in New York and Tyringham, Rio de Janeiro, and Eberstadt, Germany. He attended Friends Seminary, Escola Americana, and Kent School, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1981 with a degree in Economics and German. His first year post-college he took a nine-month solo road trip across the US and back in a 1968 VW van, financed by teaching tennis at the Stockbridge Golf Club. He met his future wife, Barbara, dancing at the Quadrille Ball in New York City. Positions in the New York banking world at the Dime Savings Bank and Citibank were followed by an MBA/MA at the Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and then a move to Munich, Germany, to work in international marketing. He and Barbara returned to the US in 1998, now with three little children in tow, settling in Mountain Lakes, NJ. Tonio joined the entrepreneurial venture of a friend, then started his own business in international television, before returning to the Lauder Institute as director of language and cultural programs, marketing and recruiting. He loved working with students at Penn, and cherished life in the Mountain Lakes community-coaching soccer, running, biking, swimming, book discussions with friends, clearing the lake for ice skating parties….
In 2008 Tonio had a career opportunity in the Berkshires and the family moved to his home in Tyringham. The Berkshires offered more joys: coaching the Lenox High boys tennis team, joining the board of Gould Farm and the Tyringham finance committee, coaching soccer, running in the Josh Billings with the “Movers and Shakers” team, sailing and swimming on the Stockbridge Bowl, attending plays, Tanglewood concerts, raising chickens and goats and vegetables…. Professionally, Tonio threw his heart into entrepreneurial ventures, including launching Wizzy Wrap, an innovative reusable gift wrap product, and working in art sales. He returned to academia in 2017 as entrepreneur-in-residence, and, later, director of entrepreneurship at Williams College. Working with students on developing their ideas was the best job he could ever have imagined, and he was thrilled by the opportunity. He had big plans, high hopes and great faith in every student he mentored.
Tonio shared his joy in life with many dear ones. Carrying on, buoyed by his spirit, are his wife, Barbara, sons William and Henrik, daughter Caroline, her husband, Kevin Strathdee, and newborn grandson, Louis. He also leaves his dear sister, Helena Gatterburg and her husband, Stefan, his uncle, Franz Gatterburg, and his beloved nieces, nephew, cousins, mother-in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, cousins-in-law, and a large circle of friends whom he loved and who adored him. He was predeceased by his parents and his sister Francesca.
Tonio and his family are grateful to his colleagues at Williams for all of their support. As well, the caring doctors at Mass General, Boston, and the dedicated team at Berkshire Hospice, who took best care of him and made it possible for him to continue doing things that brought him joy-visits, trailblazing, and dreaming up games, exercises, and inventions. Most miraculously, he met his grandson, Louis, in Munich this month.