ELIOT NOLEN

1932 - 2023

NOLEN--Eliot Chace. It is with deep sorrow and much love that we mourn the passing of Eliot Chace Nolen on December 27, 2023. Eliot was born in 1932 in Providence, Rhode Island. After attending the Wheeler School in Providence, she graduated from Saint Timothy's School in Stevenson, Maryland and Smith College. She loved her time at all her schools, made lifelong friends, and remained a loyal alumna. After Smith, Eliot worked as a research assistant at Harvard University. There, she met Wilson Nolen, a young professor at the Harvard Business School. They married in 1957 and made their life together for the next 65 years. Living in Cambridge, they had three children, Christian, Malcolm and Eliot, in quick succession. They moved to New York City in 1963, where they spent the rest of their lives. In New York, Eliot devoted herself to art education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She joined the Met's volunteer program at its inception in 1967. She conducted tours for the general public and taught primary and secondary school classes in the galleries. She served as Chair of the Education Volunteers, Chair of the High School Volunteer Program, and as a member of the Visiting Committee of the Twentieth Century Art Department. In 1984, she joined the Met's Board of Trustees and served until 2008 when she was elected director emerita. In her capacity as a Trustee, Eliot served on the New York City Art Commission reviewing permanent works of architecture, landscape architecture, and art proposed on City- owned property. She served on the Board of Trustees of Brooks School. In her philanthropy, Eliot kept her focus on art education. She gave generously to the Met, the Smith College Art Museum, the Yale University Art Gallery and the Rhode Island School of Design. While frequently honored for her giving, Eliot disliked being the center of attention. She was happiest working to encourage others to follow her fund-raising lead. She relished informing longtime Met director Phillipe De Montebello that she had helped to land another major gift. Eliot knew the value of friendship. Starting with her childhood in Providence, and then at every new step of her life, she developed deep relationships with her friends and kept them. She realized this perhaps most fully at her home on Cape Cod, where for 91 summers she surrounded herself with her community of family and friends. Eliot is survived by her sister, Jane Chace Carroll, her children, Christian (Sue Denny), Malcolm (Jennifer Napier Nolen) and Eliot (Tim Bradley), as well as eight grandchildren - Chace, Graham, Oliver, Henry, Louis, Theodore, Graydon, and Chapin. A memorial service will be held on April 12th at 11am at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York where we will celebrate Eliot's life. In lieu of flowers, she would have wanted you to make another donation to a cultural institution you love.