Jo joined the Palisades Presbyterian Church in her teenage years and sang in the choir. A popular local babysitter, she spent a summer on Cape Cod taking care of the children of Dr. Maurice Ewing, the former Director of Lamont Geological Observatory. Jo attended Nyack High School, singing in the choir, and eventually performing in school musicals as well as participating in a variety of girls’ sports. Jo was a graduate of Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio. She earned a Master’s degree in Special Education from Lehman College in New York and for over two decades was an elementary and middle school teacher in the South Orangetown Central School District.

Married to David Cole of Nyack, NY on April 14, 1960, Jo is survived by her husband and their three children, Andrea Sparhawk and husband Peter of Downingtown, PA, Amy Sheehy and husband Jeff of Blauvelt, NY, and David Cole and wife Becky of Wellesley, MA. She leaves two sisters, Elaine Imady and husband Mohammed of Damascus, Syria and Janet Chesnut and husband Robert of Santa Fe, NM.

Jo loved music, gardening, quilting, traveling, tennis, and reading. After retiring to Vermont, she took courses at Middlebury College. She was an active church member, both in the Presbyterian Church in Palisades, NY, where she was baptized and married, and the Middlebury Congregational Church (UCC) where she served as Chair of the Mission Committee and was a founding director of the Charter House Coalition that started the Transitional Housing project for the homeless and the Friday Free Suppers.

Jo will be remembered for her out-going, friendly spirit; her ease in making friends; her gracious hospitality; her loving devotion to her husband of fifty-three years, David Cole, their three married children and spouses, and eight grandchildren; her concern and care for the hungry and homeless; her commitment to peace and justice; her enthusiasm for life; and for her endurance and courage in her final days.

Judith Platt
Judith Van der Gracht Platt of Sneden’s Landing, NY, who helped co-found the One to One Learning program in Rockland County and served as Head Mistress of the Lower School at The Collegiate School in Manhattan, died of a heart attack on Sunday, October 27th, 2013. Judy Platt was 80. She is survived by her husband Frank Cheney Platt, her sons Roger and Arthur Platt and her daughter Sophie Pollok as well as her grandchildren Benjamin and Hilary Platt and Lucas and Esther Pollok.

Judy Platt was born in Washington D.C. on November 22nd, 1932, the daughter of Esther and Arthur Van der Gracht of Little Falls, NY. She attended Milton Academy and Radcliffe College where she graduated Magna cum Laude. She also earned a Masters Degree from Teachers College at Columbia University. Judy married Frank Platt on July 21st, 1957 in Little Falls NY. After living in Manhattan for many years, the couple moved to Palisades in 1986 and built a house here, next to Judy's old friend Grace Knowlton. In addition to her role at One to One Learning (an English as a second language program) and The Collegiate School, Judy also worked at School Volunteers, a New York City wide program, and at the Brearley School in Manhattan. She and Frank were both active in Amnesty International.