Mary Ann Quinson

Mary Ann (Minkie) Quinson explains her becoming chairman of the founding board of the Barrington Stage Company very simply. The Minkie nickname came about very naturally. Minkie's grandfather, Edwin Goodman, bought Herman Bergdorf's tailor shop in Lower Manhattan in 1906 and moved it to Fifth Avenue. In 1914, he introduced ready-to-wear clothes that caught the market by surprise, and in 1928 he moved the store to 5th Avenue and 58th Street on the site of a Vanderbilt mansion. The rest is high-fashion history. Consequently, Mary Ann had a nanny who adoringly called her " my little minx." So when people asked the 2-year-old who she was, she would say "I am Minkie." She can now say Mary Ann but answers mostly to Minkie. She majored in government at Smith College, married in 1960 and had four sons in six years. She then decided to become a sculptor, which she worked at for 20 years, having her own studio, and kept going until 1987, when she had her last show. Deciding to help others, she enrolled at Columbia University, from which she received a master's degree in social work in 1987. She worked five years at a psychiatric hospital and became a family therapist. She has been in private practice in New York since 1992 and specializes in family therapy and substance abuse. After her marriage broke up, she met and married Bruno A. Quinson in 1980. He is now retired after many years as head of several book publishing companies, such as Macmillan, Henry Holt and Larousse.