FREDERICK BAEKELAND

BAEKELAND--Frederick,

of New York, died on December 25th at the age of 89 after a long illness. He was the son of George Baekeland and Cornelia Middlebrook Baekeland. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, attended Harvard University, then went into the US Army and was stationed in Japan. He went on to graduate from Columbia University in 1951 with a degree in chemistry. Subsequently, he earned a medical degree from Yale Medical School. He was an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Downstate Medical Center until 1976, at which time he decided to devote his life to studying and dealing in Japanese art. He and his wife, Joan Davis Baekeland, established Toyobi Far Eastern Art, selling fine Japanese art to serious collectors and major museums in the US and London. Dr. Baekeland received many prestigious awards, gave several museum lectures, and published many museum catalogs and articles - one for the NY Times on "Psychological Aspects of Art Collecting" in 1981. He donated many works of art from his own collections to various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His hobbies included tennis and collecting Hudson River School American art and contemporary glass sculptures. In addition to his wife of 49 years, Joan Davis Baekeland, he is survived by his son, Scott Baekeland of Bisbee, AZ, his daughter, Heidi Baekeland Phillips of Nashville, TN, two grandsons, Errol and Leo Baekeland, and his sister, Cornelia Baekeland Bagarotti of Tarrytown, NY.