[6] Quimby was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and raised in nearby Lexington,[7] a daughter of an engineer and salesman father and a homemaker mother.
Although her family was business-oriented, she initially took a different path, attending San Francisco Art Institute, where she was influenced by the "back to the land" homesteading ideas of Helen and Scott Nearing.
[6][8] In 1975, she and her boyfriend, George St. Clair, moved to Maine, bought a tract of land near Guilford, built a cabin and outhouse, and lived a rustic lifestyle.
[9] Eventually she met Burt Shavitz, and in 1984 began selling candles made of his beeswax at local fairs.
added a new parcel to her real estate portfolio on the Schoodic Peninsula – the 113-acre Ocean Wood Campground.... Quimby said she plans to reopen the property and its prime oceanfront camp sites once minor repairs are made".