NEF--Evelyn Stefansson, 96, an author, lecturer, patron of the arts and philanthropist, died on Thursday, December 10, 2009 at her home in Washington, DC. Mrs. Nef was born Evelyn Schwartz in New York City on July 24, 1913. After an early marriage to puppeteer Bil Baird which ended in divorce, she married Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a noted arctic researcher and explorer, in 1941 and from then until his death in 1962, she worked with him as a researcher and librarian of his extensive polar library. She was active in the Polar Studies Program at Dartmouth College and for two years taught the Arctic Seminar. Following Stefansson's death in 1962, Evelyn moved to Washington and in 1964 she married John Ulric Nef, a historian, professor and founder of the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought, a multidisciplinary post graduate program. At age 60, Evelyn Nef earned a degree in psychotherapy and started her own practice. She became a board member of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Opera, the Paget Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, the Lourie Center for Infants and Young Children and the International Longevity Center. She is a longtime member of the Society of Woman Geographers and its National President from 1969 - 71. She is President of the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Foundation and on the Advisory Council of the Gerontology Department of Mount Sinai Medical Hospital in New York. In 1998 the University of Alaska conferred an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree on her and the Corcoran School of Art awarded her the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa in May 2000. In 2001 she received the Icelandic Order of the Falcon Medal of Honour and in 2002 Dartmouth College bestowed on her an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Her autobiography was published by Francis Press, Washington, DC, in May 2002 and is entitled Finding My Way, the Autobiography of an Optimist. Mrs. Nef was predeceased by her husband, John Ulric Nef, a brother and two sisters. She is survived by four nieces, two nephews and several grandnieces and -nephews. Interment will be at Pine Knoll Cemetery in New Hampshire and a memorial service will be held at a later date. Gifts in her memory may be made to the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1070, New York, NY 10029-6574.