James C. Jeffries

James C. Jeffries
Noted museum exhibits designer Chip Jeffries died at home Wednesday, July 26, 2023, surrounded by his family, following an extended battle with congestive heart failure. He was 77.
Born into a military family, Chip raised eyebrows when he announced that art school in Paris, not West Point, would be his future. He went on to a life filled with adventures after his time in France, much of it built on his passion for human rights, art, and design. He was deeply involved in the struggle for civil rights, experiences that helped shape his later involvement in the design of the National Civil Rights Museum and the African Meeting House. Chip was also a union organizer for the AFL/CIO, advocating to ensure workers' rights, especially for the United Farm Workers of America, both in the field and with the creation of graphics and artwork to champion political awareness of human rights.
Never losing his passion for art and design, Chip went on to work for the Houston Museum of Natural Science while teaching art at the Texas Institute of Art. He eventually came to New York to join the fledgling Ralph Applebaum Associates, rising to become deeply involved with many of its notable projects, including the redesigned Hall of Dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History and its new Hall of Biodiversity, a project that took him into the heart of the Central African Republic's rain forest for sixteen weeks in the midst of a civil war. Chip was instrumental in the redesign of the Theodore Roosevelt rotunda at AMNH and its towering Barosaurus installation. Other projects ranged from the World War I museum, the PGA World Golf Hall of Fame, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Denali visitors center in Alaska, the William Clinton Presidential Library, the Bahrain National Charter Monument and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as the aforementioned museums dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr and the early African peoples in the Boston area. He continued to create his own art and his work was exhibited at a Whitney Museum Biennial. An avid history buff, a sailor, an exuberant storyteller, he often said, "I have lived the most amazing life!"
James Curtis Jeffries III was born December 31, 1945, in San Antonio Texas. He is survived by his beloved wife Pat Clark Jeffries, his cherished daughter Sarah Jeffries Frei, son-in-law Markus Frei, grandchildren Tobias Frei, Leander Frei, stepdaughter Laura Young, step granddaughter Aerin Young and his siblings Maggie, Michael, Sara, and Gordon, along with numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his longtime partner, Peg Nelson, who died in 2007.
Memorial services will be held at a later date.