2007 Award Recipient: Lyn Silfen

This year's Audrey P. Berkeley Spirit Award was presented to Lyn Silfen

A lifelong New Yorker, Lyn Gordon Silfen was educated at the Birch Wathen School in Manhattan and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art with a concentration in painting. After college, she returned to New York to pursue a career in television production, starting as a secretary to the head of commercial television production at Compton Advertising. She was quickly promoted to the role of commercial television producer, becoming the youngest in the firm’s history. While she worked on a variety of large accounts, she specialized in consumer products, and produced numerous advertising campaigns for Procter & Gamble, including Duncan Hines and Crisco. In the early 1970s, she joined Benton & Bowles, where she continued to produce commercials, creating television campaigns for Johnson & Johnson, Sarah Lee, and General Foods.

Lyn retired in 1980 to focus on raising her children and her philanthropic interests. Her primary commitment has been to her alma mater, Connecticut College, where she was a Trustee for ten years. She served as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee, and chaired the Building and Grounds Committee. Recognizing her service to the school, the College subsequently named her an Emeritus Trustee. Consistent with her lifelong commitment to academic and athletic excellence, Lyn has concentrated on improving the physical plant of the College. Through the David and Lyn Silfen Foundation, she underwrote the cost of a new track and is currently funding the renovation of a high-tech teaching facility to commemorate her 40th college reunion. Amongst her other philanthropic interests, Lyn has served as a trustee for both the Hampton Classic Horse Show and the Clown Care Unit of New York Hospital’s Pediatrics Department.

A keen sportswoman, Lyn is an accomplished equestrienne and competed for many years in the show ring. She shared this passion with her children, and supported them as they each competed at the national level in show jumping. Lyn is also an avid golfer, and her family often travels, clubs in tow, to play “family golf” around the world.

She is the mother of two children, Adam, 31, who manages his own real estate fund, and Jane, 22, who recently began a career in investment banking. With her children grown, Lyn has more time to devote to her other interests: digital photography, travel and music. While her favorite photographic subject remains the family golden retriever, she is an ardent traveler and in the last year has photographed such diverse destinations as Antarctica, Argentina, Morocco, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Her other love is music, and the custom CDs of the Golden Dog Music Piracy Ink are much in demand by her friends. Lyn and her husband of 36 years, David, split their time between homes in Manhattan, Greenwich, and Southampton. They both miss Michael very much and are tremendously honored that Lyn is this year’s recipient of the Audrey P. Berkeley Spirit Award.