Ethel Geraldine Dodge

Ethel Geraldine Dodge (Rockefeller)

• Ethel Geraldine Dodge (Rockefeller) Wikipedia Page
• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 22504710
• The Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Foundation (has photos)
• Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, Founder of Kennel Club, Dead, NY Times

Ethel Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge was born in New York City in 1882. Child of the Gilded Age, niece of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., she lived during the era when many of America’s great personal fortunes were transformed into modern organized philanthropy.

In 1907, Geraldine married Marcellus Hartley Dodge, and in 1916 they purchased the estate in Madison, New Jersey now known as Giralda Farms. For decades, she was a great benefactress of Madison and became a local legend as a breeder of purebred dogs and a collector of art. Beginning in 1927 and continuing for thirty years, she sponsored an annual dog show that became internationally known as the world’s most prestigious.

Tragically, her only son, Hartley Dodge, died in a car crash in France in 1930. Her legacy since her death in 1973 is the institutions she endowed: St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.