Donald Marron Eulogized as a ‘Dealmaker’s Dealmaker’
Donald Marron Eulogized as a ‘Dealmaker’s Dealmaker’
(Bloomberg) -- Leaders of business and society gathered Wednesday in New York for the funeral of Donald Marron, the financier, art collector and philanthropist who orchestrated Paine Webber’s sale to UBS, founded private-equity firm Lightyear Capital and aided in the Museum of Modern Art’s expansion.
Henry and Marie-Josee Kravis, Steve and Christine Schwarzman, Jim Simons, Leonard Lauder, Vartan Gregorian, Glenn Lowry, Julia Koch, John Paulson, Tom and Janine Hill, Anna Wintour and Annette de la Renta were among those attending the service at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue. Marron died of a heart attack Friday at age 85.
He was “a dealmaker’s dealmaker,” Ken Duberstein, a lobbyist and chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan, said during the Espiscopalian service. Duberstein became friends with Marron after Richard Holbrooke seated him next to Marron’s wife, Catie, at a United Nations dinner, he said. Their families spent time together in Capri, Paris and Southampton.
Henry Kissinger said Marron was interested in building bridges between the worlds of policy and finance. “He originated the idea of monthly meetings” for their disparate sets of friends and acquaintances, Kissinger said.
Tina Brown said she often turned to Marron for advice, usually over his favorite dinner of a baked potato. “He’d say, ‘Maybe you’re looking at this the wrong way,’” Brown said. “There was something so deeply comforting about his integrity, his rigor, his moral clarity.”
Marron’s love of his family was a frequent theme, including adoration of Catie, an author and “arbiter of taste and culture,” according to Brown, as well as pride in his son William’s real estate career and daughter Serena’s equestrian pursuits.
William Marron, in remarks on behalf of his mother and sister, spoke of a recent trip with his father to play golf, a sport he’d taken up only recently. “This is a perfect example of his vigor and optimism,” he said. “How many people would do that at age 80, let alone be good at it?”
Marron’s eldest son, Donald, spoke of his father’s love of brain teasers, such as “Should you walk to work or bring your lunch?,” which he said turns out to be a lesson in economics. He also noted his father loved Billy Joel -- drawn to songs about his native New York -- and recently organized a family outing to hear the singer at Madison Square Garden.
Ronald Lauder said he was nervous attending his first MoMA board meeting in 1976, but Marron offered him a warm welcome and an invitation to dinner. “Thus began a 43-year friendship,” Lauder said. “We would often discuss how excited we were to be on a board that consisted of lunch with David Rockefeller, Philip Johnson and Agnes Gund.”
Marron had a significant impact on the museum, Lauder said. “Don is the person that saw a huge financial opportunity in MoMA’s airspace,” Lauder said. Selling the air rights over the museum “created a trust for cultural resources that would benefit the museum for years to come.”
After the funeral, friends were invited to the lobby of the museum decorated with pots of paperwhite narcissus. Bill Rudin, Aby Rosen, Dixon Boardman and Bob Morgenthau were among those paying their respects.
To contact the reporters on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net;Katya Kazakina in New York at kkazakina@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Peter Eichenbaum
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