Robert Guestier Goelet

Robert Guestier Goelet (guh-LET; September 28, 1923 – October 9, 2019) was a prominent American philanthropist and former executive at Chemical Bank, founded by the Goelet family in 1824.

Goelet was born on September 28, 1923, at a chateau in Amblainville, France.

He was a son of Anne Marie (née Guestier) Goelet, whose family were wine merchants (Barton & Guestier) and owned the 10,000 acre chateau, and Robert Walton Goelet.

His mother was French and his father was American.

His father, who owned the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York, donated the hotel to Harvard University after his death in 1941.

Goelet moved to New York at the age of 12, attended the Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard University in 1945 with a bachelor's degree in history.

During World War II, Goelet trained as a Helldiver bomber pilot with the United States Navy, but he did not see combat.

He later served as a Lt. in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

Goelet also served as a member of the New York City Council.

Goelet served as president of the family real-estate firms, Goelet Realty Company and the Rhode Island Corporation, both based out of 425 Park Avenue.

In 1952, he was elected a director of the Chemical Bank (today known as JPMorgan Chase & Co.) which was founded by an ancestor, Peter Goelet, in 1824.

He also served on the boards of French Institute Alliance Française, the National Audubon Society, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and Phipps Houses.

In 1957, he became a director of Air America, the Central Intelligence Agency-financed private air charter company.

He previously served as president of the New York Historical Society (from 1971 to 1987), and the New York Zoological Society (from 1970 to 1975) (which is today known as the Wildlife Conservation Society).

In late 1975, he was named president of the American Museum of Natural History, and was known as a "man 'nuts for fossils'."

In September 1976, 52 year-old Goelet married former debutante and graduate of Barnard College and Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Alexandra Gardiner Creel (b. 1940) on Gardiners Island.

Creel, who was previously married to Peter F. Tufo, is the daughter of Alexandra (née Gardiner) Creel and J. Randall Creel, a retired Justice of the Court of Special Sessions and Criminal Court.

They were the parents of:

He served as the museum's chairman until his retirement in 1989.

After the death of his wife's uncle, Robert David Lion Gardiner, in 2004, the Goelets took possession of the 3,300 acre Gardiner's Island, which has 27 miles of coastline, several colonial buildings, a 200-year-old windmill, and a family cemetery.

Goelet was a member of the French Jockey Club.

He died at his home in Manhattan on October 9, 2019.