He worked closely with the collector Mary Emery to greatly expand the museum's holdings of European paintings, and forged partnerships with local schools and businesses.

An artist of some ability in his own right, Gest was too preoccupied by his responsibilities elsewhere to devote much time to his art until retirement, when he painted a large number of landscapes, mostly in pastel.

[3] Upon his graduation from Harvard, he spent a time working for his father's firm,[1] but after their factory suffered two devastating fires on 20 June 1881 and 27 February 1882,[4] the business was abandoned.

[5] Afterward he for several years administered a dairy farm near Newport, Kentucky owned by his uncle Erasmus Gest (1820-1908), overseeing the breeding and raising of Jersey cattle.

[11] At first other candidates were considered to replace Goshorn,[13] but Duveneck threatened to leave again and take his students with him if Gest wasn't made director.

[11] Still Gest pressed for more space, and when John J. Emery bequeathed his painting collection to the museum in 1908, the idea came to use the bequests of Eliza and Mary Ropes to house it.

With the understanding that her collection would be bequeathed to the art museum, Emery regularly consulted with Gest on potential purchases, in what would prove to be an extremely fruitful partnership.

[22] Throughout his tenure Gest believed strongly in the value of applied arts, devoting large portions of the museum's gallery space to textiles, ceramics, and metalwork.

Taylor was preoccupied with growing the architectural faience division of the company,[27] and needed a vice president to fill the space left open by the departure of Bellamy Storer.

[30] Unlike Taylor, Gest proved not to be a hands-on leader, instead focusing on broad policy matters while delegating the day-to-day operations to vice president John D. Wareham and chief chemist Stanley Burt.

[32] Meanwhile, the pottery's record profits of the early '20s turned to loss, and business in the architectural division steadily declined due to rising competition.

[32] In 1928 Rookwood lost their case against the IRS, and while they eventually won an appeal, the entire process of fighting the decision was extremely costly.

[34] By 1930 Rookwood was taking bank loans to remain in the black; Gest, who "was not at home in finance",[35] announced to the board that the deficits were "taken care of.

[42] Gest found time for his own artistic pursuits in his retirement from the art museum, painting impressionistic landscapes and local scenes in oil, watercolor, and especially pastel.