Woodstock , VT – Patricia “Patsy” Hume Highberg died peacefully May 28, 2026 in Zurich, Switzerland. Born on September 20, 1937, Patsy grew up in Vacaville and San Francisco, California, the oldest of four children of Jaquelin Holiday Hume and Caroline Elizabeth Howard.
Her father built a successful business in California dehydrating onions and garlic during the Depression. Patsy’s upbringing was shaped by the outdoors and traveling. Among her earliest memories included adventures on horseback stopping to pick and eat figs and apricots directly from the trees. Summers brought riding camps in Montana; family trips carried her to Greece, Egypt, Russia, France, Austria, Kenya, Tanzania, Italy, the Caribbean, and beyond. All these events and places planted a lifelong love for the natural world and the world at large. The world was varied and beautiful-and Patsy took it upon herself to protect and celebrate it.
After studying political science and art history at Smith College, she married her husband, Paul Highberg, and together they built a life full of travel, curiosity, and intention. Choosing not to have children, she poured her energy into causes and communities, from serving on the board of Planned Parenthood in Connecticut and Vermont for ten years to spearheading affordable housing projects in Woodstock through the Woodstock Community Trust. She also served on the board of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, where she was director from 1978 to 1983, working to shape legislation that would safeguard the environment she so cherished. Patsy was a strong advocate for MAID – Medical Assistance In Dying.
Patsy was driven by a lifelong passion to make a positive impact on the world. Of all her endeavors, perhaps none is more emblematic of her artistry and vision than her award-winning garden in Woodstock. A master gardener for decades and a member of the North American Rock Garden Society since 1972, Patsy designed her landscape to follow the land’s natural shape, creating seamless transitions from rock garden to woodland, from cultivated beauty to native forest. In 2012, she received the society’s prestigious Linc and Timmy Foster Millstream Garden Award, recognizing her work and the garden’s rockwork, rare perennials, dwarf trees, and its overall aesthetic harmony. Visitors often recalled how a walk through her garden felt like an unfolding story-full of surprise, thoughtfulness, and delight. A review of her garden in Rock Garden Quarterly called her design a “masterpiece” and “a perfect plan for a perfect garden.” It is an achievement of which she was deeply proud and which she cherished. Her knowledge of Latin names for the plants in her garden was impressive. She was a longtime member of the Woodstock Garden Club.
Patsy was also a gifted artist, painting and exhibiting vibrant watercolors, teaching photography, and always finding ways to capture the interplay of color, light, and form, proving that curiosity is ageless.
Patsy was predeceased by her parents, her husband and her brother Jerry Hume.
She is survived by her sister Carol Tolan, her brother George Hume along with many nieces, nephews and great nephews.
In Patsy’s memory, she would appreciate it if donations were made to Planned Parenthood, Sustainable Woodstock or Conservation Law Foundation.
A private celebration of Patsy’s life will be held at a later date.
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