Arthur Houghton

Arthur Amory Houghton Jr. (December 12, 1906 – April 3, 1990) He was the son of Mahitbel "Mabel" (née Hollister) Houghton (1867–1938) and Arthur Amory Houghton Sr. (1866–1928), a former president of Corning Glass. His parents lived in Corning and in New York City at 920 and 941 Park Avenue. He had two older sisters, Phoebe Hollister Houghton, who died young, and Gratia Buell Houghton, who married writer and playwright Alan Rinehart.

His paternal grandparents were Amory Houghton Jr., a former president of Corning, and Ellen Ann (née Bigelow) Houghton. Arthur was nephew of Alanson Bigelow Houghton (a U.S. Representative and Ambassador to England and Germany)

Like his father before him, Houghton attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire in 1925, and graduated from Harvard University in 1929.

Philanthropy In 1942, he endowed Houghton Library at Harvard as a repository for the university's collections of rare books and manuscripts, and, later, donated Wye River, his plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where he bred Black Angus cattle, to the Aspen Institute, the international public policy organization, which is today the Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Centers.

In 1952, he joined the board of the New York Philharmonic, serving as chairman from 1958 to 1963 and on the board itself until 1965. and became chairman in 1969 (and serving until 1972). Houghton, who was a member of more than 100 education and arts organizations, served on the board of the Museum from 1952 to 1974. He was succeeded as president by C. Douglas Dillon, a former investment banker who had worked with the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. Jane was the daughter of Gertrude (née Howard) McCormick and Marlin Edgar Olmsted, a Republican member of the U.S. Congress from Pennsylvania. Before their divorce in July 1938, they were the parents of:

Jane Olmsted Houghton (1930–1989), who married Rollin Van Nostrand Hadley Jr. in 1950. She later married Robert Gordon Hankey, Horace E. Henderson, and George R. Kneeland. Sylvia Houghton (b. 1933), who married Richard Gordon Garrett in 1963.

His first wife remarried to Hugh McMillan in 1947. On June 7, 1939, he was married for the second time to Ellen Crenshaw (1906–1961) in Queenstown, Maryland. Ellen was a friend of Washington journalist Joseph Alsop. Before their divorce in January 1944, they were the parents of one child:

Arthur Amory Houghton III (b. 1940), who married Sherrill Jean Mulliken in 1968. He later married Linda Livingston Davis, daughter of Goodhue Livingston Jr., in 1987. Arthur was the assistant curator in antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

On January 15, 1944, he married for the third time to Elizabeth Douglas McCall (1919–1996), a daughter of Arthur May McCall. They lived at 3 Sutton Place, a four-story brick townhouse that was built in 1921 for Anne Morgan, daughter of financier J.P. Morgan. In 1971, Mr. Houghton Jr donated it to the United Nations for use as the official residence of the Secretary-General in 1972 ) and before their divorce in 1972, were the parents of one child:

Hollister Douglas "Holly" Houghton (b. 1945), who married equestrian William D. Haggard III in 1968.

After their divorce, Elizabeth remarried to prominent architect Walker O. Cain in 1973. On May 22, 1973, he married for the fourth, and final time, to Nina (née Rodale) Horstmann (b. 1937) at Annapolis. Nina, the daughter of J. I. Rodale of Rodale, Inc. and sister of Robert Rodale, was previously married to Robert Horstmann. In 1979, the philanthropic couple donated the Wye Plantation, their previous compound, to the Aspen Institute.

Houghton, who also had a home in Boca Grande, died at Venice Hospital in Venice, Florida, on April 3, 1990. He was buried at the Old Wye Episcopal Church Cemetery in Wye Mills, Maryland. Nina went on to live at their compound in Queenstown, Maryland until her death on March 15, 2020.

In 1949, Houghton was awarded permanent, honorary membership at The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. The organization sought to recognize him for funding the Houghton Memorial Carillon, a 23-bell carillon located at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1933.

In 1971, he was awarded the Skowhegan Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Award by the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture for his outstanding efforts as "a patron of the arts."