He is best known for more than quadrupling the size of the Whitney Museum's art holdings.
He graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor's degree in art history in 1954, where he became a member of the Quill and Dagger society.
He studied museum administration at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts in 1967.
He also served on the advisory committees of Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens and Winterthur Museum & Country Estate, and was an honorary trustee of the National Building Museum and a trustee of the New York School of Interior Design.
His book, "A Singular Vision," on the design of his glass house on Fishers Island, New York, was published by WW Norton in fall 2011.