Cora Gibbs

GIBBS, CORA LEE RECIPIENT OF THE RI GOVERNORS ARTS AWARD, PASSES AWAY AT AGE 92 Cora Lee Gibbs, age 92, of Tockwotton-on-the-Riverfront in East Providence, passed away peacefully in her sleep at Miriam Hospital in Providence early Thursday morning, the 29th of September 2016. Mrs. Gibbs was the 1991 recipient of the Governor's Arts Awards for her lifetime services to arts education in Rhode Island. She had served as Director of the Newport Art Museum, Curator of Education at both the RISD Museum of Art and the Newport Art Museum, and was active in arts, educational and civic organizations for more than 50 years in the greater New England area. Cora Lee was born on 22 June 1924 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her parents, Helen Maxwell King and Walter Wesley Gethman were both Americans who had met serving with the YMCA in support of the American Expeditionary Forces sent to France in 1917 under General Pershing. They had been subsequently posted to Czechoslovakia. With her parents' reappointment to Geneva, Switzerland in 1928, Cora Lee attended the newly formed International School of Geneva, then a sister organization of the League of Nations. While her father presided over the World Council of the YMCA, her mother taught at the International School. Cora Lee returned to the US in 1939 with her mother, her father having just died, and with WWII just pending. Cora Lee graduated from the Northfield School for Girls in 1942. In 1946, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College with a degree in art history, a year before her fiancé Julian Howard Gibbs graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College, his graduation having been extended for a year while he served in the US Navy in the Pacific. She served during the war effort for two summers, first in agriculture in upstate New York and second fabricating vacuum tubes in a Boston suburb. Cora Lee and Julian were married on 27 July 1946 at the Northfield School. Over the next decade, they lived in Princeton NJ, Cambridge England, St. Paul MN, Schenectady NY and Philadelphia, as her husband pursued his career in chemistry and Cora Lee had four children. They moved to Barrington in 1960, when Julian was appointed a professor of chemistry at Brown University, and Cora Lee joined the RISD Museum of Art, in time becoming Curator of Education. Returning to academia, she received her Master's Degree in History of Art from Brown University in 1972. In 1979, Julian and Cora Lee moved to Amherst College where he had just been appointed president. At Amherst, Cora Lee became active in Amherst's Mead Art Museum, the Five Colleges Consortium (Amherst, Smith, UMass, Mount Holyoke and Hampshire) and the New England Committee of the American Association of Museums. She was awarded the Amherst College Medal for Eminent Service in 1984. After her husband's early and unexpected death in 1983, Cora Lee was named Director of the Newport Art Museum, and moved to Newport. During her tenure, a substantial addition to the Cushing Memorial Gallery was built. Upon her retirement from the Newport Art Museum in 1991, she was awarded the RI Governor's Art Award for her service in arts education for her adopted state of Rhode Island. The award stated "Gibbs" boundless energy and enthusiasm for the arts is responsible for transforming the Newport Art Museum from a local art institution into a well-respected regional museum. Her contribution is not limited to the Newport community, but is felt throughout the state by her presence on countless arts organizations, boards and committees". She remained a trustee of the museum to her death. Mrs. Gibbs was also past President of the Newport Rotary, served on the Trinity Church Tricentennial Committee, and was a board member of the Friends of Touro Synagogue, the Bristol Art Museum, the Newport YMCA, the Colonial Dames, Rhode Island Historical Society, Alliance Française and the Northfield School. Mrs. Gibbs is predeceased by her husband Julian Howard Gibbs and her sister Mary Helen Gethman Galloway. Mrs. Gibbs is survived by her four children's families: James Hemenway Gibbs and Pamela Jeanne Cramer Gibbs of Mystic CT, Judith Maxwell Gibbs Shaw and Bruce Alford Shaw of Providence RI, Jeffrey Stephen Gibbs of West Greenwich RI, and Jonathan Myles Gibbs and Cynthia Lou Sleeman Gibbs of Old Saybrook CT. She is also survived by her grandchildren: Rebecca Helen Shaw O'Hara of University City MO, Julia Gibbs Shaw of Williston VT, John Maxwell Shaw of Brooklyn NY, Myles David Gibbs and Ashley Rose Gibbs of Old Saybrook, and Adam Gethman Gibbs of Mystic; two step grandchildren - Mead Whitlock Bachelor of Newport Beach CA and Kenneth Randy Bachelor of Almeida CA; and three great-grandchildren - Katherine Morgan O'Hara, Alexander Maxwell O'Hara and Simone Juliet Diaz. A memorial service will be held at Trinity Church in Newport at 11AM on Saturday the 15th of October. In lieu of flowers, donations in Cora Lee's name may be made to the Newport Art Museum.