Seymour H. Knox II

Seymour Horace Knox II
Born	Template:Birth date Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Died	September 27, 1990(1990-09-27) (aged 92)
Occupation(s)	Philanthropist, businessman, polo player
Known for	Philanthropy, art patronage, leadership at Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Template:Use mdy dates Template:About-otherpeople Template:Infobox officeholder Seymour Horace Knox II (September 1, 1898 – September 27, 1990) was a philanthropist and polo enthusiast from Buffalo, New York. He was the son of affluent entrepreneur Seymour H. Knox I, and resided in an opulent residence crafted by architect C. P. H. Gilbert.

Early life

Born on September 1, 1898, to Grace Millard Knox and Seymour H. Knox I, he was part of a family whose patriarch consolidated his chain of five-and-dime stores with those owned by his cousins, Frank Winfield Woolworth and Charles Woolworth, culminating in the creation of the F. W. Woolworth Company in 1912. Seymour was one of three children who survived infancy; his older sisters were Dorothy Virginia Knox and Marjorie Millard Knox. His education included attendance at the Nichols School in Buffalo followed by the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. In 1917, he endured a serious accident when a seaplane piloted by a friend crash-landed in Buffalo; he suffered a fractured skull but made a full recovery. He earned his degree from Yale University in 1920, where he was affiliated with the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon.

Career

After graduating from Yale in 1920, he joined the board of directors at Marine Midland Bank in 1921. He advanced to vice-president in 1926 and subsequently held the position of chairman from 1943 until his retirement in 1970. That same year, he also joined the board of the F. W. Woolworth Company, becoming chairman in 1943 and serving until mandatory retirement in 1971 after forty-five years on the board. Between 1950 and 1969, he chaired The University at Buffalo's governing Council. His directorships extended to include positions with Marine Midland Bank, F. W. Woolworth Company, New York Central Railroad, Penn Central Railroad, and the American Steamship Company.

Art

In 1926, he became a member of the board at the Albright Art Gallery. From the outset, he played a pivotal role in advancing the modernism movement and shaping Buffalo's contemporary cultural scene. Over a span of six decades, he was deeply involved with the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, ascending to the position of President by 1939. During his leadership, he significantly enhanced the Gallery's Contemporary Abstractionism collection. His most notable contribution is the 1962 expansion of the Albright Art Gallery, a project executed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Following this addition, the institution was renamed the Albright-Knox Art Gallery to honor his influence. He generously donated upwards of 160 artworks specifically for this new wing and contributed more than 700 pieces throughout his lifetime. He is also credited with helping to elevate the prominence of Jackson Pollock. Under his guidance, the Gallery became a trailblazer by being the first museum to acquire a Clyfford Still piece and among the earliest to obtain works by Henry Moore. As prominent advocates of Abstractionism, they secured acquisitions from nearly every leading abstractionist artist. In 1965, he was selected to serve on a commission responsible for choosing modern art for the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, New York.

Personal life

In 1923, he wed Helen Northrup, an alumna of the Albright Art School. The couple resided in an opulent residence at 57 Oakland Place in Buffalo, designed by C. P. H. Gilbert. Construction began in 1924 on this home, which was a gift from Knox's mother, who lived nearby at 800 Delaware Avenue. They had two sons:

• Seymour H. Knox III (1926–1996)
• Northrup Rand Knox (1928–1998)

Both sons were founding principal owners of the Buffalo Sabres NHL team. Knox himself was immortalized in a 1985 painting by Andy Warhol titled "Portrait of Seymour H. Knox". Additionally, he provided substantial financial support to the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut, where two curatorial positions—the Seymour H. Knox Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Seymour H. Knox Jr., Curator of European and Contemporary Art—bear his name. An enthusiastic polo player, he captained his Aurora team to victory in the United States Championship in 1932, subsequently touring South America and winning a tournament in Europe.

Knox passed away on September 27, 1990, and was honored posthumously in Congress through a eulogy delivered by U.S. Representative Bill Paxon.

Honors

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan bestowed upon him the prestigious National Medal of Arts in recognition of his significant impact on the arts both within Buffalo and across the country.

See also

• Albright-Knox Art Gallery
• Knox Farm State Park
• National Medal of Arts

References

• Goldman, Mark, "City on The Edge: Buffalo, New York," Prometheus Books, 2007.

External links

• Sports Illustrated: School of Hard Knox
• Knox Family of Buffalo, NY
• Seymour H. Knox Is Dead at 92; Buffalo Banker Was Art Patron
• Friends of Knox Farm State Park