Polly Seymour, widow of former Rollins College president Thaddeus Seymour and a longtime community leader, died on November 23 in Greensboro, NC.  She was 95.

Polly was born on July 9, 1929 to artists Jon Gnagy and Mary Jo Hinton Gnagy from whom she inherited both a beautiful sense of color and design, and a lifelong love of books and words.  She graduated from the Holmquist School, now the Solebury School, in New Hope, Pennsylvania and went on to study at the University of Rochester; she completed her formal education in 1985 when she earned a B.A. from Rollins College while also serving as the college's first lady.

Polly and Thaddeus's marriage in 1948 began a lifelong partnership that was interrupted only by Thaddeus's death in 2019. In 1954 and fresh out of graduate school, they moved to Hanover, New Hampshire where Thaddeus joined the faculty at Dartmouth College.  Five years later Thaddeus was appointed Dean of the College and for the rest of his career Polly served as his sounding board and partner in everything from entertaining students to handling difficult alumni, all while raising five children.

The Seymours left Hanover in 1969 when Thaddeus became president of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana.  In 1978, after serving nine years as first lady and president of Wabash, the Seymours moved from Indiana to Winter Park, Florida where Thaddeus had been appointed the twelfth president of Rollins College.

From the moment they arrived in Winter Park Polly took an active role in Rollins life, including helping to plan the college's 1985 centennial celebration, working on the renovation of one of the campus's original buildings, sprucing up residence halls, spearheading an ambitious reorganization of the campus food service, participating in the Rollins Women's Association, and providing countless meals to students, parents, alumni, and distinguished guests.  Off campus she served on the board of the Maitland Arts Center; helped to found the Winter Park-Maitland chapter of Habitat for Humanity; was instrumental in preserving the historic Casa Feliz; was a founding board member of the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Central Florida, now part of United Arts of Central Florida; served on the board of ADDitions, supporting volunteerism in local public schools; and chaired the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival.  In 1997 Polly and Thaddeus were named the Outstanding Citizens of the Year by the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce.

Of all her many activities in Winter Park Polly's greatest love and largest impact was on the Winter Park Library.  Soon after coming to Winter Park she helped to start a semi-annual book sale to benefit the library.  In 1995 the book sale became the New Leaf Bookstore, a volunteer-run and community-supported bookstore which, in its nearly thirty years of operation, has raised well over a million dollars for the library and is consistently listed as one of the best bookstores in the Orlando area.  Polly was recognized in 2017 for her work with a statewide award from the Florida Library Association and was named Winter Park's "Literacy Leader" by Winter Park magazine.  In 2019 the bookstore, now housed in the new library building on West Morse Boulevard, was renamed the Polly Seymour New Leaf Bookstore in honor of Polly's 90 ^th birthday.

In March of 2024 Polly left Winter Park for Greensboro, North Carolina to be closer to her daughters.  She is survived by daughters Liz and Abigail of Greensboro, NC; Thad and his wife Katie of Orlando, FL; Sam and his wife Karen of New York; nieces Caroline Gnagy, and Tryntje and Gabriel Seymour, and nephew Mathew Gnagy.  A third daughter, Mary Duffie Seymour, died in 2015.  Polly also leaves twelve grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.  Special thanks go to the wonderful caregivers at Bayada Home Health Care and to Authoracare in Greensboro and AdventHealth Hospice in Florida for their loving support at the end of Polly's life.

Celebrations of Polly's life will be held in Greensboro on December 7, 2024 and in Winter Park, Florida on February 18, 2025 .  Memorial gifts can be sent to the Winter Park Library, 1052 W. Morse Blvd., Winter Park, FL 32789, winterparklibrary.org .