Anne Revis Grosvenor Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Anne Revis Grosvenor, 104, former editorial staff, writer and photographer for the National Geographic Magazine, and widow of Melville Bell Grosvenor, one-time Editor and President of the National Geographic Society and grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, passed away on May 27, 2022. Ms. Grosvenor last lived at Rock of Ages, Rock Hall, MD. Born in New York City on January 22, 1918, a year marked by the pandemic and end of World War 1, Ms. Grosvenor was nine years old and the eldest of five when her father suspended his 30-year-old tile-importing business to serve with the Methodist Board of Foreign Ministries. The family moved to Mussoorie, India, a remote and historic hill station in the Himalayas, north of Delhi, where Ms. Grosvenor attended the Woodstock International School, completing high school at 16. In 1938 she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Randolph Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, VA. Ms. Grosvenor then studied at the Katherine Gibbs School in New York City, training to become a professional secretary and researcher. Her first job was as a researcher for early restoration efforts at Colonial Williamsburg, VA, sponsored by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1939. When restoration slowed prior to World War II, Ms. Grosvenor took a job at the University of Virginia Medical School in Charlottesville, VA, and then at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC, where she met her future husband. Ms. Grosvenor worked for National Geographic from 1944 to 1950, before leaving to raise her family. She remained involved in her husband’s Geographic work as he climbed the ranks, settling in Bethesda, Md., and, together, travelling the world. Ms. Grosvenor was a member of the National Presbyterian Church, Cosmos Club, Chevy Chase Club, Society of Women Geographers, Literary Society of Washington, Washington Club, Gibson Island Club and Plymouth Congregational Church, Coconut Grove, FL. Survivors include a daughter, Sara Grosvenor, of Chestertown; a son, Edwin Stuart Grosvenor of Bethesda; a stepson, Gilbert Melville Grosvenor of Hume, VA, a sister, Rowena Revis Jones of Marquette, MI, a brother-in-law, Stan Judge of Shelburne, NH, two grandsons and a great-grandson. A funeral service will be held Friday, September 23, at 10:30 a.m., at the National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Ave., NW, Washington, DC and will be viewable at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86249811494?pwd=akQ0ZUtjcGV3ZGR2SUo4MFV3TnpRZz09 Passcode 4101.

Anne Revis Grosvenor

January 22, 1918 - May 27, 2022