Alice Louise Judd Simpich

Judd was born in Honolulu on March 1, 1918, the daughter of James Robert Judd and Alice Louise Marshall Judd. Her father was a surgeon, and the grandson of missionaries Gerrit P. Judd and Laura Fish Judd. Her grandfather Albert Francis Judd was chief justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.^[1] She attended the Punahou School^[2] and the Bennett School, and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1940,^[3] with some additional studies in sculpture at Columbia University.^[4][5]

Simpich is best known for her sensitive portrait busts. She held an exhibit in 1941 at a gallery in Honolulu.^[6] In 1957 her Sleeping Faun was one of four sculptures featured in the annual exhibition of the Hawaiian Painters and Sculptors League.^[7] In addition to being a sculptor, she was president of Hui Manu ("Honolulu's bird society"),^[8] and an active member and supporter of the Maui Humane Society and the Honolulu Academy of Arts.^[9][10][11] She also played the cello.^[2] Polish-born artist Frederic Taubes painted her portrait.^[12][13]

Judd married Nathan Fiske Banfield III in 1942, at Kawaiaha'o Church;^[14][15] they had three children.^[16] Their son Nathan died from an accidental gunshot wound in 1955,^[17] and their son Michael died in 1999.^[18] Her second husband was writer and businessman Frederick Simpich Jr., the son of journalist Frederick Simpich. They married in 1955,^[19] and he died in 1975.^[20] She died at age 87 on January 21, 2006, in Kula, survived by her daughter, Louli.^[21] Her carved stone portrait bust Head of a Young Woman is installed in the John Dominis and Patches Damon Holt Gallery of the Honolulu Museum of Art.^[22]