Sydney Shuman, Audrey Gruss
and Diana Quasha |
LENOX
HILL NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE
Rolex
Sponsors Viewing Of Art
To Benefit Upper East Side Needy
Story by Roger Webster
Photos by Donald Bowers for Patrick McMullan
 ENOX
HILL Neighborhood House celebrated its 110th anniversary and
raised $725,000 to help the needy on Manhattan’s Upper East
Side.
The black-tie evening,
sponsored by Rolex Watch U.S.A., began with cocktails and hors
d’oeuvres for 750 at the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue,
to preview the 11th Annual International Fine Art Fair, one of the
world’s most prestigious fine art shows.
Benefit co-chairs Audrey
Gruss and Diana Quasha, Walter Fischer, Rolex
president and CEO and gala co-chair Sydney Shuman greeted
guests such as CBS’s Marjorie Baker-Riker, Alfred
Taubman, Eva Dillon, David Easton, Nancy
and Harold d’O. Baker, Pamela Van Ingen, Earle
and Carol Mack, Renée and Carl Landegger, Blakely
and Trey Griggs, Valentino’s Ellen Niven,
Marianna, Raj and Juan Sabater, Mark
Gilbertson, Andrea and Tom Donahue, and Judith
and Stanley Zabar.
There was over a half
billion dollars worth of art from the Renaissance to the 20th
century presented by international art dealers.
John and Andrea Stark |
Libby
and Terry Fitzgerald, Tinsley Mortimer, Joan
Lacey, Ilene Wetson, Marilyn White, Laine
and Richard Siklos, Livia Cox-Fill, Ann Nitze,
Jason Hirsch, Nicole Rombaldi, Sanieer Chishty,
Christopher Mason and Grace Hightower admired
paintings by Gauguin, Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Max Ernst, Richard
Dadd and Joseph Stella.
The splendid night
continued as guests including Ingrid and Tom Edelman,
Sara Ayres, Georgia Kaufman, David Patrick Columbia, Annie
Churchill, R. Couri Hay, Leslie and Kevin Coleman, Stanley
Shuman, Leslie Heaney, Caroline Dean and Eric Cohler moved
to a grand private club on Fifth Avenue for dinner and dancing.
Many made the transfer in
charming London Town Cars provided by Steve Spencer.
The generous group,
including Chris and Grace Meigher, Pat Patterson, Gary
Beller, Marsh McLennan, Catherine Aaron, Billy and Debbie
Bancroft, Burwell and Paul Schorr, and Lisa and
Donald Jackson, gasped as they entered the club’s
magnificent dining room filled with 30 tables, each with an
original table decoration created as variations on the “time”
theme by top interior designers.
Cynthia Lufkin and
Walter Fischer |
The
Design Chairs were John Rosselli, Bunny Williams, and
Robert Rufino, whose table, “Tempus Fugit,” was stunning
with huge black and white ostrich plumes.
The
House’s executive director Warren Scharf thanked their
honorary gala co-Chairs Elizabeth and Felix G. Rohatyn, Media
Partner, Quest Magazine and associate sponsor
Celine as well as his hardworking staff including Lucia
DeRespinis, Virginia Pitman and Lauren Malang.
CBS’s
Morley Safer narrated an audio visual presentation of
pictures, photographed by Barbara Vaughn, showing candid
shots of the House’s good works. They serve 300,000 meals a year
and help 20,000 New Yorkers from all walks of life. |
