From the Corning Leader (06/14/2010)
By The Leader Staff, Corning Leader
Posted Jun 14, 2010 @ 12:36 AM
Corning, N.Y. —
Renowned artist Thomas Buechner died Sunday in his home.
According to the biography on his website, Buechner, who was born in New York City in 1926, was the first director of the Corning Museum of Glass from 1950-1960 before becoming the director of the Brooklyn Museum from 1960-1971.
In 1972 Buechner became the president of Steuben Glass, chairman of the Corning Glass Works Foundation and president of the Corning Museum of Glass.
He also helped establish the Rockwell Museum in 1976 and served as its president for 10 years.
In 1985 Buechner became a vice president of Corning Glass Works.
Buechner wrote the glass section for the Encyclopedia Britannica and founded both the Journal of Glass Studies and the New Glass Review.
He also wrote “Norman Rockwell, Artist and Illustrator”, in 1971, and, in 2000, “How I Paint”. His most recent book, “Seeing A Life”, was published by the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, New York in 2007.
Painting full time since 1986, Buechner was an established portrait, landscape and still life painter. He had many one-man exhibitions in New York City, throughout this country and in Germany and Japan.
Buechner is survived by his wife, Mary, and three children, Bohn Whitaker, Thomas Buechner III and Matthew Buechner.