Schuyler Chapin

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Schuyler Garrison Chapin (February 13, 1923 – March 7, 2009) was an Assistant General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for New York City during the administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. He famously noted of his work, that:

"There is nothing simple in the world of the arts" (New York Times, 1995).[1]

He was the son of Lindley Hoffman Paul Chapin (1888–1938) and Leila Howard [Burden] (1899–1967).[2]

Life in the Arts & Humanities

While still a teenager, in the 1930s, he began accompanying millionaire widow and former actress Eleanor Belmont to the Metropolitan Opera.[3] He attended the Millbrook School in 1940, where he was very active in the performing and musical arts,[4] however, he did not graduate from high school, nor college, but was the recipient of numerous university honorarium. He became a pilot during World War II.

By 1953, he had become Jascha Heifetz's tour manager. Around this time, he also befriended Leonard Bernstein, several of whose live recordings, including the Grammy award-winning Beethoven's Birthday (1970), Chapin produced.

In 1963, he was named vice-president of Lincoln Center and co-founded the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 1969.[5] In 1972, he accepted the position of General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera after the previous GM, Göran Gentele, died in a car accident before the opening of his first season. Chapin stayed on at the Met for four years, subsequently becoming Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of the Arts, a position he held for 11 years, later being kept on as Dean emeritus.

In 2002, he was awarded France's Légion d'honneur, 82 years after his father; L. H. Paul Chapin, a World War I liaison officer between General Pershing and Marshall Foch, received the same honour.

He wrote several books, including Leonard Bernstein: Notes From a Friend.

He was also a Board Member Emeritus In Memoriam at The Center for Arts Education.

Lineage

Schuyler G. Chapin's first wife Elizabeth [Steinway], whom he married 15 March 1947, died in 1993; daughter of Theodore E. and Ruth [Davis] Steinway.[6] They had four sons: Henry Burden, Theodore Steinway, Samuel Garrison, and Miles Chapin. Chapin met and married second, divorcee Catia Zoullas Mortimer in 1995. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani officiated the marriage at Gracie Mansion, New York City.

Schuyler Garrison Chapin is a ninth generation descendant of [Capt.] Philip Pietersen Schuyler, (1628–1683), who settled in New Netherland (or Amsterdam), abt. 1650, with bros. David Pietersen Schuyler; a lesser known, but equally poised branch of the family.[7] Chapin's maternal pedigree extends to include: [Priv.] Isaac Kingsland (1710–1803); Third Battalion, of the New Jersey Continental Line, who married 3 Jun. 1741 Joanna [Schuyler];[8] Chapin's sixth great grandparents removed. Their granddaughter Catherine Schuyler [Kingsland] married [Capt.] Oliver Garrison; Chapin's fourth great grandparents removed; parents of [Commodore] Cornelius Kingsland Garrison;[9] whose granddaughter Cornelia Garrison [Van Auken] married Lindley Hoffman Chapin; paternal grandparents of Schuyler G. Chapin.

Through the Schuyler and Van Rensselaer families of New York and New Jersey, Schuyler G. Chapin is the third cousin sixth removed of Elizabeth "Betsy" [Schuyler];[10] wife of First U. S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton; daughter of [Maj. Gen.] Philip John Schuyler, Jr., who was one of four major generals named by Congress in 1775, and third cousin fifth removed of Chapin.[11] Major General Schuyler served instrumentally in the Burgoyne Campaign (1777).[12]

His paternal side descends in the ninth generation from early English Puritan Deacon Samuel Chapin who arrived in America, from Devonshire, between 1633–1635, and was later one of the founders of Springfield, Massachusetts.[13][14][15]

References

  1. ↑ Wakin, Daniel J. Schuyler G. Chapin, Stalwart Champion of the Arts in New York, Dies at 86. New York Times. 9 Mar. 2009, A21.
  2. ↑ Harvard College (1780 -), Class of 1911. Decennial Report. Pub. Four Seasons Co., 1921, pp. 70 – 71.
  3. ↑ New York Times article.
  4. ↑ Film interview (2006) about his experience at Millbrook School.
  5. ↑ Grimes, William (2011-09-20). "William F. May, 95, Dies; Helped Found Film Society". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-09-22. 
  6. ↑ Isacoff, Stuart and Ratcliffe, Robald V. Steinway. Chronicle Books, 2002, pp. 24 – 25.
  7. ↑ Christoph, Florence A. Schuyler Genealogy: A Compendium of Sources Pertaining to the Schuyler Families in America Prior to 1800. Pub. Friends of Schuyler Mansion, 1992, Vol. 1, p. 119
  8. ↑ Lineage Book. By Daughters of the American Revolution, 1921, Vol. 57, pp. 270 – 271.
  9. ↑ Abbott, Lyman, et al, eds. The National Cyclopedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic. New York: J. T. White, 1897, Vol. 7, p. 262.
  10. ↑ Cutter, William Richard and Cuyler, Reynolds. Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation. New York; Lewis Hist. Pub. Co., 1914, Vol. 3, pp. 1379.
  11. ↑ Seymour, Mary Jane, Historian General. Lineage Book: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Washington, DC, 1899, Vol. 8, p. 295.
  12. ↑ De Peyster, John Watts. Major General Philip Schuyler and the Burgoyne Campaign in the Summer of 1777. Pub. Kiessinger, 2006, p. 2.
  13. ↑ Crane, Ellery Bicknell. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity. New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1907, p. 220 – 221. Followed by Norcross family 221 – 223.
  14. ↑ Quintin Publications. The Chapin Gathering; Proceedings of the Meeting of the Chapin Family, in Springfield, Mass., September 17, 1862. Pub. S. Bowles & Co., 1862, pp. 35 – 36.
  15. ↑ Adams, William Frederick & Cutter, William Richard, Eds. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1910, Vol. 3, pp. 1528–1530.

External links

Preceded by
Göran Gentele		 General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera
1972-1974 		Succeeded by
Anthony A. Bliss
Authority control
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