Robert Guestier Goelet

Robert Guestier Goelet (guh-LET; His mother was French and his father was American. His father, who owned the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York, donated the hotel to Harvard University after his death in 1941.

Goelet moved to New York at the age of 12, attended the Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard University in 1945 with a bachelor's degree in history. Goelet also served as a member of the New York City Council. He also served on the boards of French Institute Alliance Française, the National Audubon Society, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and Phipps Houses. In 1957, he became a director of Air America, the Central Intelligence Agency-financed private air charter company. and was known as a "man 'nuts for fossils'." He served as the museum's Chairman until his retirement in 1989. He previously served as president of the New York Historical Society (from 1971 to 1987), and the New York Zoological Society (from 1970 to 1975) (which is today known as the Wildlife Conservation Society).

Personal life In September 1976, 52 year-old Goelet married former debutante and graduate of Barnard College and Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Alexandra Gardiner Creel (b. 1940) on Gardiners Island.

Goelet was a member of the French Jockey Club. He died at his home in Manhattan on October 9, 2019.

Robert Guestier