NORTH HAMPTON, N.H. – Diane Seyfort-Ruegg Kensler died of natural causes on Sept. 5, 2022 at her home in North Hampton, N.H. She was 96 years old. Born Aug 2, 1926 in Binghamton, N.Y., she was the daughter of noted artist Aimee Seyfort and textile manufacturer, Erhart A. Ruegg.

She spent her childhood in Binghamton, Amsterdam (Holland), then her teens in Santa Fe, N.M., where she frequented an artistic milieu, among whom celebrated painter Georgia O’Keeffe. She then attended Radcliffe College, where she met and married her first husband, Harvard student Morton Margolis, an aspiring composer and later, humanities professor at Boston University. The newlyweds spent a year abroad studying in Paris, where she studied Greek and Sanskrit at the Sorbonne, and gave birth to their first child, then returned to complete her BA at Radcliffe. The couple then settled in Lexington, Mass., where they had two more daughters. Proximity to Boston enabled the young family to participate in the local cultural scene, as, for example, when the couple co-founded the Creative Concerts Guild, sponsoring promising and established composers and musicians from nearby and abroad.

After the couple divorced in 1957, she married pharmacologist and cancer researcher Dr. Charles J. Kensler. The new couple moved with her three daughters to North Hampton, N.H., while Dr. Kensler continued to work in Cambridge, at the consulting firm of Arthur D. Little. At their North Hampton farm known as Ryegate, they decided to raise Shetland show ponies, a versatile breed then especially trending. Although Ryegate Shetlands existed as a business for only about five years, Mrs. Kensler accomplished much in this endeavor, deploying her boundless energy and creativity with great dedication. For not only did she quickly manage to assemble and breed a nationally ranked show string, winning many championships in several categories, but she also helped found the NH Shetland Pony Association, which she governed as its first president, to encourage the development of this breed for show and pleasure. She often availed her track, hunt course and stables (which she herself mostly designed) to charitable foundations, equestrians and mere horse lovers alike, of all ages. Very much hands-on and perfectionistic in running her facilities, she informally mentored, and personally inspired, several young employees and friends who would later go on to become farm managers or pursue equestrian activities throughout their lives.

Mrs. Kensler also managed to become an expert gardener, as reflected in Ryegate’s uniquely attractive landscaping. Her talents were further honed in the 1970s by her husband’s gift of a landscape design course at Harvard, after which she even did some professional landscaping design work.

The Kenslers traveled frequently and widely—at first in connection with Charles’s consulting work, then later for pleasure—around the world. Between these often exotic and exciting trips, they would retreat to their summer house on Vinalhaven. There they entertained a diverse, international array of guests in cottages the Kenslers themselves designed and where she planted additional gardens. They also enjoyed boating along the New England coast, not without some unforeseen adventures, vividly recounted in their trademark 40s-movie-comedy dialogue style, much to their listeners’ amusement. Widely read in literary classics and esoterica, she avidly followed current events and was a brilliant, witty, opinionated conversationalist. Her sardonic humor also surfaced in town meetings, as anyone having sat next to her can attest.

Predeceased by her husband, daughter Valerie Margolis and brother David Seyfort Ruegg, she is survived by daughters Nadia Margolis of Gorham, Maine and Aimee (Doron) Margolis of North Hampton/New York City, and their children Amelia of Tokyo and Max of New York City; stepson Thomas W. Kensler (Dr. Nancy Davidson) of Seattle, Wash., and their children Dr. Caroline Kensler of Baltimore and Kevin Kensler of New York City.

Her life celebration will be announced at a later date. Tribute wall: https://www.remickgendron.com/obituaries/Diane-Kensler/#!/TributeWall.

In lieu of flowers, donations are welcome to:

Diane Kensler Memorial Green Space

North Hampton Public Library

239 Atlantic Ave.

North Hampton, NH 03862