Mickie Eschweiler died peacefully in the Memory Care unit at The Club in Briarcliff Manor, NY on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, following a brief hospitalization, and in the presence of her family. She was 90 years old.
Marie Pauline Symonds Eschweiler was born in New York City on October 13, 1931, the only child of Paul A. and Marie Pauline (Duley) Symonds. Mickie was given her nickname by her mother, shortly after her birth, who thought she looked “just like a Mickey Mouse!” She spent her early years in Port Jervis, NY, and when her mother remarried after the death of Mickie’s father, she moved to Delmar, NY, a suburb of Albany. Mickie entered Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, graduating in the class of 1953, and was a member of the Sigma Kappa sorority. After a year as a business representative with NY Telephone, Mickie attended a post-graduate program at Katherine Gibbs School in Boston, MA. to earn her certification as an executive secretary. Although they were good friends at Cornell, Mickie and Peter had never dated there, but after she moved to Boston, he courted her by air during his senior year at Cornell, flying his light plane from Ithaca to Logan airport in Boston. They announced their engagement in May 1955 and were married later that year, on August 13th.
Their daughter Susan was born in Ithaca while Peter was in graduate school for his degree in city and regional planning, and their son Steven three years later while Peter was serving on active duty with the US Air Force in Greenville SC. Upon Peter’s release from active duty in January 1960, the family moved to Pleasantville, where they lived for 60 years.
In Pleasantville, Mickie was active in many local organizations, including the international student exchange programs of the American Field Service and of the Experiment in International Living. A member of the Pleasantville Presbyterian Church, Mickie served as a Deacon and was chair of a search committee for an associate pastor. She was active in the Women’s League and the church’s Rummage Sales. She also served as chair of the board of the Mt. Pleasant Public Library.
Mickie joined the local chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, an international philanthropic and educational organization for women known for its programs providing women’s national and international scholarships, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She served the Pleasantville chapter as president, and in the late 1980s, was elected president of the group’s New York State chapter.
Mickie is survived by her husband Peter, the former Westchester County Commissioner of Planning, and by their children Susan Eschweiler (Mrs. John Rivlin) of Palo Alto and San Francisco, CA, their son Steven Eschweiler of Ossining, and their only grandchild, Michael Rivlin, of San Francisco.