Passed away October 17th, 2019.
July 30, 1931 – October 17, 2019
Thomas Northrup Maytham, a resident of Denver for 45 years and former Director of the Denver Art Museum, passed away in his sleep October 17, 2019, at the Life Care Center of Aurora, where he had been receiving hospice care following a long illness.
Born in Buffalo, NY, he was the son of Thomas Edward Maytham and Margaret Northrup Maytham, longtime residents of that city. From the age of 7 until his teen years, Tom accompanied his parents as his father was transferred by his company, first to Boston, then New York City, eventually settling in southern Connecticut shortly before the end of the Second World War. In 1946, Tom entered South Kent School, an elite private boys’ school in Connecticut, where he excelled as a student and athlete. He maintained high grades in the classroom, while playing on the varsity ice hockey team and rowing in the first boat in crew. For Tom, it was an easy transition to Williams College, where he majored in art history. Upon graduation from Williams in 1954, Tom was persuaded by his professors to focus on a career in art history and museum management, and was recruited to attend the master’s degree
program in that field at Yale University.
Armed with a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale, in 1956 Tom accepted a prized position in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, one of the leading art museums in the United States and the world. Tom joined Director Perry Rathbone’s team that was revolutionizing art museum management, using striking new acquisitions (first Picasso oil), social events, and sales of publications to attract increasingly large and increasingly young art lovers, the general public, and financial donors to the Boston museum. After showing promise as Assistant to the Curator of Paintings at the Boston Museum, Tom became head of the Department when the curator unexpectedly retired, remaining 11 years in that position. While there, he wrote and presented a number of hour-long programs on Public Television (WGBH) about the museum’s collections, exhibitions, and important artists. Having established himself as an up-and-coming person in the museum world, Tom was then sought out as Associate, then Acting, Director of the Seattle Art Museum in 1967, where his achievements were recognized and honored with the Governor’s Arts Awards from the State of Washington.
Tom realized the pinnacle of museum management when he was appointed Director of the Denver Art Museum in 1974, where he remained until 1983. As director, he supervised a staff of more than 100, generated and managed annual budgets in excess of $5,000,000, prepared and implemented numerous exhibitions of contemporary and classical art. In recognition of his efforts, knowledge and expertise, Tom received awards from the Federal Republic of Germany, the Governor’s Arts Award from the State of Colorado, among others. For the past 35 years, until shortly before his death, Tom was an art and museum consultant, fine arts appraiser, and broker for the purchase and sale of all types of art. Throughout his career, he wrote many articles for a variety of art publications. As a consultant to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY,Tom oversaw the total reconception and remodeling of the Whitney Western Art Museum, one of five museums comprising the Center. Tom was known for his sharp wit and repartee. He had a great, everlasting love of the West, its mountains, skiing, hunting, and fishing, for which he created and tied his own flies. He also had a love of travel, visiting many countries in Europe and Asia. His keen eye for beautiful art enabled him to bring back many pieces from all over the world to adorn his beautiful home. He was predeceased by his wife, Gloria, and is survived by his son, Gifford Maytham, of Basalt, CO, his brother, Peter Maytham of Smithfield, VA, grandsons Wilson and Chace Maytham, nieces Nicole Hornblower and Margo Muttilainen, and nephew Peter C. Maytham.