With great sadness we inform our grantees and other colleagues of the loss of Sybil Hite, who passed away on December 27, 2008, following a year-long battle against leukemia. Sybil was Vice President of The Hite Foundation and managed its grantmaking program. Born in London, Sybil immigrated to New York in the late 1960s, worked for ten years as a social worker in the foster care system, and earned a Masters of Social Work from the Hunter College School of Social Work. Philanthropist and champion for the reform of failing child welfare systems, she believed that every child should have a safe, loving, and permanent family. Sybil shared her lifelong love of 19th century British photography through the funding of public exhibitions at museums in the United States and London. She was a member of the Visiting Committee of the Department of Photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a board member of Philanthropy New York (formerly known as the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers).

Donations may be made in Sybil's memory to the Child Welfare Organizing Project, East Harlem Neighborhood Center, 80 East 110th Street, #1E, New York, NY 10029, or to Open Road of New York, 346 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10003.