Just three weeks ago, I interviewed Debbie Natansohn, Seabourn Cruise Line's president and chief operating officer, for a Q&A article that appeared October 23. Debbie speckled our conversation with laughter and fun, amid the professional demeanor on both sides. Yes, we talked about ships and onboard services, but we also chuckled about handbags.
I smiled for the rest of the day, reflecting upon Debbie's
down-to-earth manner. She certainly did her job well, yet she also savored
life's personal moments. Sadly, Debbie, 53, suffered a serious heart attack on
October 22 and died at
"Debbie was one of our industry's true stars, and she left such a positive mark on all she touched," stressed Virtuoso's CEO Matthew Upchurch. "She was a champion of innovation and dedicated to excellence. I will truly miss her, and I know all our members and staff join me in expressing the void we will feel without her."
Similarly, Rick Meadows, senior vice president of marketing and sales, Holland America Line, said: "She had an incredible sense from the marketing perspective of what was the right thing to do, something that so many people in the business [don't have]. She was passionate about her career and her chosen industry, and she believed every day that she was making a difference."
Former CLIA Chairman Mark Conroy, president of Regent Seven Seas Cruises, called Debbie "a great human being." Conroy raved about Debbie's willingness to share her industry knowledge with CLIA and the agency community. He also praised her for her role in CLIA's 2003 management transition, when Terry Dale became president and CEO. "She was one of the brightest and most intelligent people in the travel industry, and will be missed by all," said Conroy.
Only a few days before her hospitalization, Debbie ended the week on a high note, announcing that Sea-bourn–currently operating three mega-yachts–had ordered two new 32,000-ton, $250 million ships. "She figured out how to make money with [Sea-bourn's] ships, and was the first person to do so," remarked Conroy.
A former travel journalist, Debbie was appointed president
of Seabourn Cruise Line in July 2004, after a stint as senior vice president of
sales and marketing at Cunard Line, where she launched the Queen Mary 2.
I fondly remember Debbie at the the fairy tale-like 2004 christening of QM2
by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at
Debbie believed her legacy to the cruise industry would be QM2,
because that ocean liner was built to sail for decades. So in 40 years—when we
were all old and gray—it would still be plying the world's oceans. But she had
other achievements. In 1998, she became the first female cruise line president
in the
After the 2001 christening of Orient Lines' Crown Odyssey
in