Graydon Vanderbilt passed away peacefully at the age of 95 in her home in Princeton, NJ, on September 28, 2025. She was born Ann Graydon Smith in Nutley, NJ, and grew up there and in Garden City, NY. After graduating from the Garden City High School she attended Vassar College, where she got a degree in biology and physiology. She then married Robert (“Bob”) Vanderbilt, and together they raised two sons. The family lived first in Huntington, NY, and then returned to Garden City, where Graydon and Bob remained for more than 50 years.
Graydon held jobs and volunteer positions throughout her life. As a young parent, she worked part-time as a medical technician for a local doctor and as an assistant in the children’s section of the public library. When her children were in high school, she became active in the Garden City Student Exchange Program, serving as its president for a year and arranging for her own family to host a Dutch exchange student for six months. She went on to become an assistant to the Foreign Student Advisor at Adelphi University, and then Dean of Foreign Students at Hofstra University, where she served for many years.
Graydon was an avid gardener and tennis player, interests she shared with her husband Bob. Upon his retirement from Grumman Aerospace in Bethpage, NY, the two took the opportunity to travel frequently, enjoying many memorable international trips together.
After Bob passed away in 2010, Graydon moved to Windrows in Princeton, NJ, near the home of one of her sons. She remained there for the final 13-year chapter of her life. Graydon quickly made many friends and became a well-known figure. She chaired the gardening and landscaping committees, and for many years was the organizer of the weekly program of outside speakers.
Graydon was a person of wide interests, perhaps influenced by her father, a commercial artist by profession and a scholar of Shakespearean theaters by avocation, and her mother, who graduated from Wellesley College and wrote two books on Long Island history. Graydon was also a very talented artist, with a specialty in botanical watercolors that decorated the walls of her apartment and those of friends and family. She stayed active, playing tennis into her 80s and ping-pong into her 90s. She always had a smile and encouraging words for all those around her.
Graydon is survived by her son Peter and daughter-in-law Marisa Vanderbilt; son David and daughter-in-law Roslyn Vanderbilt; granddaughter Karen Vanderbilt and husband Marc Shapiro; granddaughter Sarah Vanderbilt and partner Matt Stohrer; and great-grandchildren Hannah and Dylan Shapiro. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to Youth for Understanding.