Deborah Stark Ecker died on February 19, her 96th birthday. The cause of death was cancer. Deborah was born in Des Moines Iowa in 1927 and moved to Newbury Court in Concord.. Her husband, Hoyt, predeceased her in October 2017.
The Eckers lived in Weston, Chatham, Vero Beach and Concord. Deborah was president of the local League of Women Voters, and active in the communities of which she lived. Deborah graduated from Vassar College and received a master’s degree from Brandeis University. It was her Vassar economics professor who directed her to the League of Women’s Voters, saying she had “an obligation to put to use her good education.”
Through her long-held position with the state League of Women Voters, she became an expert in the state’s fiscal affairs and was appointed to important positions by three Massachusetts governors. She commuted into the city to work for the State Executive and Legislative branches and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She was proud to be able to implement the League’s position into government policies.
The Eckers enjoyed their 41 years in Weston. They were avid sailors and cruised the Atlantic coast. In the early 1990’s they arrived via the Intracoastal in Vero Beach and bought a condominium. After Hoyt’s death in 2017, she met her new partner, Dr. Donald P. Goldstein, also of Weston, with whom she resided at Newbury Court in Concord. They enjoyed traveling and mutual cultural activities.
Deborah will be remembered for her fiscal policy efforts that placed value in the democracy of small-town government and was deeply committed to environmental issues in each of the towns where she lived. While in Concord, Deborah chaired the Residents’ Executive Committee and the Trails Committee at Newbury Court which at the time of her death was installing an ‘All Persons’ trail. Besides Dr. Goldstein she leaves, daughters Emily Ecker (Marcel Polak) and Ellen Ecker Ogden, son Samuel H. Ecker (Shelley Ecker), five grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Memorial services will be held at Newbury Court in Concord on Saturday March 4th and in Chatham, Massachusetts in June. Arrangements are under the care of Bryant Funeral Home.
