Gillian Page, 88, of New Paltz, passed away on April 29, 2026 in New Paltz, NY
Gillian was born November 14, 1937 in Marple, Cheshire, England to Arthur Bertram Timperley and Jess (Wray) Timperley. Gillian moved to Barrowford, Lancashire when she was two. Her father was export manager for a textile mill and served for many years as a County Councillor. Like her sisters Judy and Christine, Gillian attended Howell’s School for Girls, a boarding school in Denbigh, North Wales. She spent five happy years there, until at 16 she won a state scholarship to the University of London, earning a B.A. in Modern European History at 19. She won a scholarship to attend the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
On board the ship to America, she met a nice looking young Dartmouth student, David, who was returning from a tour of Europe in the summer between his Junior and Senior years. A hurricane turned their five-day crossing into a nine-day adventure, during which most passengers were sick, which gave Gillian and her new friend David the run of the boat.
In 1959, immediately after they graduated, David from Dartmouth and Gillian with an Master’s degree from William & Mary, they returned to England to marry in Barrowford. On the theory that they should both be in new territory, after their wedding they moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where David was a graduate student and teaching fellow in Physics at the American University of Beirut. Gillian became the principal breadwinner, earning $2000 a year as a teacher of 9th grade history and English, as well as serving as librarian at the American Community School. Gillian loved the two years they spent in Lebanon. She had a view of the sea (on tip-toes from the apartment bathroom), had her first driving lesson in the desert, spent a memorable Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, rode through villages on the back of Dave’s Vespa (once being shot at), but at last returned to England for the birth of her first child, Suzy. She and Dave lived in Ames, Iowa from 1961 to 1965, where David worked on degrees in Physics. After the birth of their son Andy, they moved to New York, first to Hopewell Junction, where they had two more sons, Brian and Thomas.
With four kids and a yearning for adventure and a bit of land, Gillian started househunting. She found a bargain in a great big house on a fruit farm in Milton. They lived there for 48 years. Tenacious and hard working, Gill surrounded the house with beautiful gardens. Always frugal, she found weeding after dark helpful because it stopped her from trying to transplant what she pulled. She canned and froze the vegetables that David grew to serve all winter. She and David planted fruit of all kinds, which they sold locally. For many years Gill was known as the Grape Lady at the Poughkeepsie Farmer’s Market. Gillian worked for many years for Ulster County Mental Health as an Evaluative Analyst. She was an enthusiastic supporter of the Poughkeepsie Day School, and the Sarah Hull Hallock Library in Milton. She loved yoga, her knitting group, her book group and volunteering at historic house tours.
In 2017, Gillian and David decided that their much-loved house and farm were too much, and moved to the Woodland Pond retirement community in New Paltz where they were very happy for several years. Although Gillian’s memory began to fail a few years ago, she remained cheerful and frequently stated that she lived in a nice place, where people took good care of her. Her wonderful poetry recitations and her vivacious story telling endeared her to other residents.
Gillian was socialist in her politics, a tireless volunteer, a lover of tea (if hot and properly made) and tea-parties, a champion knitter, an amazing gardener, ferocious in defence of her children. She held strong opinions, and could offer a correct quotation or recite lengthy poetry suitable for any occasion. She was stubborn, loyal, a perfectionist, an exhaustingly hard worker, and formidable in opposition. She laughed with abandon. She taught us how to mail baby teeth to the tooth fairy in a snapdragon, the order of the kings and queens of England, and how to make gravy the right way. For holidays, she would festoon every surface with decorations, many of which she made, and would cook enormous feasts for her family. She always played along with her grandchildren’ s antics, yet somehow always seemed like a proper lady while doing so.
She is survived by her husband of 66 years, David Page; children Suzanne (Wynne), Andrew (Cheryl), Brian, Thomas (Keri); grandchildren Trevor (Sara), Kevin (Madison), Nicholas (Grace), Julia (William), Bennett (Cate), Iain, Violet, William; and great-grandchildren Lilah, Sora, Logan; and her sister Judy.
A Celebration of Life will be held for Gillian on Sunday, May 17 at the Locust Grove Brewing Company, Milton NY, just down the hill from her old home, 10 – 11:30 a.m.