Becker, Marion Rombauer (02 January 1903–28 December 1976), cookbook writer, arts administrator, and conservationist, was born Marion Julia Rombauer in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Edgar Roderick Rombauer, a lawyer, and Irma Louise von Starkloff, a cookbook writer. Her outlook and interests were strongly shaped by a freethinking, reform-minded family. She studied art history and French at Vassar College and spent her junior year at Washington University in St. Louis, receiving a B.A. from Vassar in 1925. Hoping to find a career in modern dance or art education, she began teaching in 1929 in the art department of John Burroughs School, an experimental school in Clayton, Missouri....
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Becker, Marion Rombauer (1903-1976), cookbook writer, arts administrator, and conservationist
Anne Mendelson
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Diller, Burgoyne (1906-1965), painter and arts administrator
Martin R. Kalfatovic
Diller, Burgoyne (13 January 1906–30 January 1965), painter and arts administrator, was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Andrew Diller, a violinist and conductor, and Mary Burgoyne. Diller’s father died in 1908. In 1919 his mother married Adrian Adney, an engineer, and the family moved to Battle Creek, Michigan. Diller attended Battle Creek High School and, subsequently, Michigan State College in East Lansing. A marginal student, Diller was successful only in his art classes and on the track team. Leaving Michigan State before graduating, he moved in 1928 to Buffalo, where he lived with his maternal grandfather....
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Europe, James Reese (22 February 1880–09 May 1919), music administrator, conductor, and composer
Reid Badger
Europe, James Reese (22 February 1880–09 May 1919), music administrator, conductor, and composer, was born in Mobile, Alabama, the son of Henry J. Europe, an Internal Revenue Service employee and Baptist minister, and Lorraine Saxon. Following the loss of his position with the Port of Mobile at the end of the Reconstruction, Europe’s father moved his family to Washington, D.C., in 1890 to accept a position with the U.S. Postal Service. Both of Europe’s parents were musical, as were some of his siblings. Europe attended the elite M Street High School for blacks and studied violin, piano, and composition with Enrico Hurlei of the U.S. Marine Corps band and with Joseph Douglass, the grandson of ...
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Koehler, Robert (1850-1917), painter and art educator
Colles Baxter Larkin
Koehler, Robert (28 November 1850–23 April 1917), painter and art educator, was born in Hamburg, Germany, the son of Theodor Alexander Ernst Koehler, a machinist, and Louise Carolina Christiane Bueter, a fine needlework instructor. In 1854 the family moved to the United States. They stayed briefly in New York City before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they joined family and where Robert’s parents continued working at their respective professions. It was in this German-American community that Koehler’s ties to Germany were reinforced....
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Leatherman, LeRoy (1922-1984), author and arts administrator
Alice Helpern
Leatherman, LeRoy (10 February 1922–09 April 1984), author and arts administrator, was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, the son of LeRoy Sessums Leatherman, a salesman, and Mary Aline Dugger. Educated at Vanderbilt University (1939–1941), Kenyon College (1941–1942), the University of Illinois (1943–1944), and Southern Methodist University (bachelor of arts, 1948), Leatherman held the John Crowe Ransom Creative Writing Scholarship at Kenyon College and wrote many short stories and critical essays. He served in the air force between 1942 and 1946. He first saw ...
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Neuendorff, Adolph Heinrich Anton Magnus (1843-1897), conductor, composer, and administrator
Francis P. Brancaleone
Neuendorff, Adolph Heinrich Anton Magnus (13 June 1843–04 December 1897), conductor, composer, and administrator, was born in Hamburg, Germany. He came to the United States with his parents (names unknown) in 1854 in the first wave of German immigrants. The family settled in New York, where his father was employed as a bookkeeper. Neuendorff studied violin with George Matzka, a violist in the New York Philharmonic and its emergency conductor in 1876, and with Joseph Weinlich. His principal piano teacher was Gustav Schilling, who also taught him composition and theory. Schilling was noted for writing a six-volume encyclopedia of music, the ...
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Papp, Joseph (1921-1991), theater producer, director, and administrator
Mary C. Kalfatovic
Papp, Joseph (22 June 1921–31 October 1991), theater producer, director, and administrator, was born Joseph Papirofsky in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Samuel Papirofsky, a trunk maker, and Yetta Miritch, a garment worker. Both parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Encouraged by teachers in local public schools, young Joseph Papirofsky developed an enthusiasm for English literature, especially the works of Shakespeare. After graduating from Eastern District High School in 1938, he applied to Brooklyn College but was not admitted because of poor grades in science and mathematics. He then worked at a series of jobs and became active in the Communist party. From 1942 to 1946 he served in the U.S. Navy, spending most of this time in an entertainment unit. After discharge from the navy, Papirofsky enrolled at the Actors’ Laboratory Workshop in Los Angeles, using veteran’s benefits to pay expenses. At the Actors’ Lab, which had been founded by former members of the politically left wing Group Theater of the 1930s, he gained valuable experience in fundamentals of stage direction and nonprofit theater management. He stayed with the Actors’ Lab until it ceased operations in May 1950, and then joined a touring company of ...
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Rush, William (1756-1833), sculptor and arts administrator
Susan James-Gadzinski
Rush, William (04 July 1756–17 January 1833), sculptor and arts administrator, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph Rush, a ship carpenter, and Rebecca Lincoln. At that time, Philadelphia was the seat of the colonial government and a principal shipbuilding and mercantile center. Rush showed an early ability at carving and drawing. As a teenager he served a three-year apprenticeship to Edward Cutbush, a carver from London, and soon made better figureheads than his teacher. Probably by 1774 he had his own ship-carving business. On 9 September 1777, soon after the outbreak of the Revolution, Rush joined the American cause and was commissioned an ensign in the Fourth Regiment of Foot of Lieutenant Colonel Wills’s Philadelphia militia. Little else is known of his service. He married Martha Simpson Wallace on 14 December 1780; they had ten children. The eldest, John, became a ship carver and joined his father in business....
