Linda A. Chisholm, age 79, of Nyack, New York, died on Wednesday, July 24, at home, surrounded by family. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on January 20, 1940, she was the daughter of Dr. Max George Armstrong and Mary Kathryn (Volker) Armstrong. She is predeceased by her parents and brother, the Hon. Richard V. Armstrong.

She attended Vassar College, where she met her husband of 57 years, the Rev. Alan Laird Chisholm. They were married in Tulsa in 1962. She completed her BA (1962) and MA (1972) in history from the University of Tulsa and earned a PhD in history from Columbia University (1982).

In 1980, Linda began her 35-year career in higher education as Executive Assistant to the President (Seymour Eskow) at Rockland Community College, NY. She then served as President of the Association of Episcopal Colleges (1985-2001), and simultaneously as Co-Founder and Vice President and later as President of the International Partnership for Service-Learning (1983-2006). In 1993, she founded Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC) and was its first General Secretary until 2001. She served as a Trustee of the Harvard-Yenching Institute (1993-1999) and the United Board of Christian Higher Education in Asia (1986-2001), where she was Chair of the Board (1993-96).

A pioneer of service-learning, she advanced the pedagogy of uniting academic study and substantive volunteer service in higher education around the world. For this work, she was awarded four honorary degrees (General Theological Seminary; Cuttington University, Liberia; Trinity University of Asia, Philippines; and Virginia Theological Seminary), three fellowships (Roehampton University, UK; Sewanee: The University of the South; and CUAC), the National Service Award of Jamaica, and was made Honorary Paramount Chief of the Kpelle tribe in Suacoco, Liberia. She is the author of Charting a Hero’s Journey (IPSL Press) and several other books and journal articles related to service-learning.

In her retirement, Linda combined a lifelong love of history and gardens, teaching the history of landscape design at the New York Botanical Garden for nearly a decade. She was also a Master Gardener of the Cornell University Cooperative Extension in Rockland County. In 2018, Timber Press published her book The History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens.

She moved to Rockland County with her family in 1971 and to South Nyack in 1976. In Nyack, she served on the Nyack Public Schools Board of Education and the Vestry of Grace Episcopal Church, where she also chaired the committee to extend and enhance the columbarium and garden, for which she was the chief designer.

She is survived by her husband Alan; her three daughters and sons-in-law, Eleanor and Peter Landauer (Baltimore, MD), Margaret and Christian Marsh (Arlington, VA), and Kathryn Chisholm and Peter Foley (Nyack, NY); and three grandchildren, Malcolm Laird Marsh, Grace Silk Foley, and Charles Armstrong Marsh.



A memorial service will be held at Grace Episcopal Church in Nyack on a Monday, August 12, 2019 at 11 AM. The family will receive friends on Sunday August 11, 2019 from 4PM to 6PM at the Hannemann Funeral Home, Inc. in Nyack, NY.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Grace Church Columbarium Fund, 130 First Avenue, Nyack, NY 10960; Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion, 815 Second Avenue, New York NY 10017; or GIFFORDS (Americans for Responsible Solutions + Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence), PO Box 51196, Washington DC 20091.