from the Boston Globe (8/31/2010)

Whether raising money for various charities, accompanying her husband on his travels, socializing with the politically powerful, or teaching her children, Eugenia Ayer Merrill Seamans was dedicated to helping others reach their full potential.

“There are many more people in the world, many more crises, many more wars, many more diseases, and many more choices, paths to follow, places to go,’’ she said in her self-published memoir, “Light and Life.’’ “It is easy to condemn some modern developments from the comfort and security of one’s home, but the real world is marching ahead, and I want to be a person who listens, loves, and tries to understand.’’

Mrs. Seamans, a philanthropist and family matriarch, died from heart failure on Aug. 12 in her home in Beverly Farms. She was 88.

Mrs. Seamans was born in Madrid, where her father was the American consul. Her family returned to the United States when she was about 2 years old; she spent most of her childhood in Washington, D.C., and her summers at her family home in Prides Crossing. She graduated from the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., in 1940.

In Washington, Mrs. Seamans grew up in the presence of prominent politicians and government figures, according to her memoir. Jerry Land, her godfather, was chairman of the US Maritime Commission, and General George Patton was her uncle.

“She had a really fun relationship with’’ General Patton, said her son Joe of Pittsburgh. “They played squash. He didn’t want to play with men his own age until he could hold his own, so my aunt and my mother would play with him and get him up to speed.’’

Mrs. Seamans experienced more of the Washington social scene when she married Robert Seamans Jr. in 1942. He became secretary of the Air Force and deputy administrator of NASA. After first raising her family in Middleton and the family home in Beverly Farms, Mrs. Seamans returned to Washington in 1959.

Her husband’s work brought the couple into close contact with many government figures and five presidents, according to her memoir. When President Kennedy was assassinated, the couple attended the funeral, and Mrs. Seamans helped his widow, Jacqueline, respond to the letters of condolence. Mrs. Seamans also described Lady Bird Johnson as “a pleasure to be with,’’ and wrote that President Ford was her favorite among the presidents she met.

“There were so many of them,’’ her daughter Katharine Padulo of Philadelphia said of the politicians her parents met. “They wouldn’t intimidate her. She had a lot of things she could talk about. Her main thing was ‘get people talking.’ You have to figure out how to get them talking about something interesting. She could do that naturally because she was sincerely interested in other people. That’s the essence of having social grace. She was always thinking of the other person.’’

Out of her esteem for George Washington, she represented Massachusetts as vice regent for 16 years and as regent from 1986 to 1990 of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. During her time as regent, she escorted the key to the Bastille to France for the country’s bicentennial celebration. President George H.W. Bush insisted that Mrs. Seamans present the key to the French president, Francois Mitterrand, said Jim Rees, president of the Mount Vernon Association.

“She was chairman during a tumultuous time on our board,’’ he said. “Our attendance was declining, and we were facing some financial troubles, but we never went in the red, and she kept the ship moving ahead. She was a very effective leader. She was always incredibly gracious, but she was determined when she had to be.’’

Mrs. Seamans took that leadership to other aspects of her philanthropy. She served as president of the alumnae association of the Masters School and was an avid supporter of the House of the Seven Gables and Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, the Beverly Farms Library, the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, and the Hospice of Mission Hill, the first in the nation for AIDS patients.

She was also a former trustee of the Deafness Research Foundation and a supporter of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, organizations she became involved in because of her eldest son, Robert III, who is called Toby. At age 3, doctors told Mrs. Seamans that he was deaf.

“When a doctor told her that I would never live a normal hearing life, she took a correspondence course at the Tracy Clinic in California and found a wonderful speech teacher, Helen T. Patten,’’ Toby said by e-mail. “She convinced the head mistress at a grade school in Beverly that she would take the blame if I did not perform well at the school.’’

Mrs. Seamans and her husband also spent much of their time sailing. Mrs. Seamans accompanied her husband on several races in Bermuda and Halifax, serving as cook and crew for the family boat Viva. After her husband died in 2008, Mrs. Seamans spent more time in their Beverly Farms home, which they called Sea Meadow, gardening and painting, her children said. “She brought out the best in everyone,’’ Katharine said.

In addition to her sons Joe and Toby and her daughter Katharine, Mrs. Seamans leaves another son, Daniel of Berkeley, Calif.; another daughter, May Baldwin of Cambridge; 11 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Beverly Farms.

Vivian Ho can be reached at vho@globe.com.

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