Robert Guestier Goelet


Robert Guestier Goelet was a prominent American philanthropist and former executive at Chemical Bank, founded by his family, the Goelet family, in 1824.

Early life

Goelet was born on September 28, 1923 at a chateau in Amblainville, France. He was a son of Anne Marie Goelet, whose family were wine merchants and owned the 10,000 acre chateau, and Robert Walton Goelet. 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.
After growing up in France, he moved to New York at age 12 and then attended the Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts before graduating from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in history in 1945.

Career

During World War II, Goelet trained as a Helldiver bomber pilot with the United States Navy, but he did not see combat. He later served as a Lt. in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Goelet also served as a member of the New York City Council.
Goelet served as president of the family real-estate firms, Goelet Realty Company and the Rhode Island Corporation, both based out of 425 Park Avenue. In 1952, he was elected a director of the Chemical Bank which was founded by an ancestor, Peter Goelet, in 1824. 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.
In late 1975, he was named president of the American Museum of Natural History, 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, and the New York Zoological Society .

Personal life

In September 1976, 52 year-old Goelet was married to former debutante and graduate of both Barnard College and Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Alexandra Gardiner Creel on Gardiners Island. Alexandra, who was previously married to Peter F. Tufo, is the daughter of the former Alexandra Creel and J. Randall Creel, a retired Justice of the Court of Special Sessions and Criminal Court. Together, they were the parents of:
After the death of his wife's uncle, Robert David Lion Gardiner, in 2004, the Goelets took full possession the 3,300 acre Gardiner's Island, which has 27 miles of coastline, several colonial buildings, a 200-year-old windmill, and a family cemetery.
He was a member of the french Jockey Club, Paris, from 1950 to his death.
Goelet died at his home in Manhattan on October 9, 2019.