Walter C. Beinecke, Jr.

Beinecke, Walter,, Jr.,, 1918-2004

Biography

Walter Beinecke, Jr. (Hamilton College Honorary Degree 1966; Life Trustee), was born 20 February, 1918, in Manhattan, NY, and died 23 May, 2004, in Nantucket, MA. Beinecke enlisted in the merchant marines at age 15 and, though he never attended college, eventually served as an executive for S&H Green Stamp Company. He was elected to the Hamilton College Board of Trustees in 1960, a position he held until his death, and was awarded an honorary degree from Hamilton in 1966. While serving as the Chairman of the Hamilton Trustee Committee on Planning, he was instrumental in the planning and building of Kirkland College, where he was appointed as a trustee in 1968. During his life, Beinecke made substantial donations to the Rare Book Collections of Hamilton College and Yale University. A shrewd businessman, Beinecke was also instrumental in the revitalization and restoration of the island of Nantucket, eventually being awarded the National Historic Preservation Award by President Reagan in 1989.

WALTER BEINECKE OBITUARY

Walter Beinecke Jr., who combined good business with historic preservation on the island of Nantucket by investing in the saving and enhancing of the traditional architecture of its old whaling port, died May 23 at the Nantucket home of a daughter, Ann Oliver. He was 86.

The cause was myasthenia gravis, a muscle disease, Ellen Durckel Vestewig, his sister-in-law, said.

Mr. Beinecke, an heir to the S & H Green Stamp fortune, had the notion of reviving a seriously deteriorating Nantucket by appealing to wealthy tourists. He did this by buying much of the town ' s waterfront, then fixing it up, building by building, filling in the holes with re-creations and reproductions of 18th-century architecture.

Nantucket had been declining almost since the time the fictional Ahab steered the Pequod out of its harbor in the mid-19th century in search of Moby-Dick. After World War II, the wharfs, shops and maritime buildings fell yet more steeply into decay, even as more and more people came to the island.

But Mr. Beinecke, who grew up loving the salty summers of Nantucket, came to the belief that the swarms of new visitors did not spend nearly enough money to justify the damage they were doing.

His frankly elitist approach, as he told Time magazine in 1968, was to attract fewer people who would buy six postcards and two hot dogs and more people who would rent a hotel room and buy a couple of sports coats.

The spruced-up buildings, which could attract higher-rent retailers, were part of the strategy. So was Mr. Beinecke ' s successful effort to restrict ferries to the island unless they agreed to carry fewer passengers for higher fare, as well as his battle for a building code banning high-rises.

A trust he set up in 1957 poured millions of dollars into restoring churches, houses and landmarks. He replaced a church steeple that had blown away in a hurricane a hundred years earlier.

" If we had taken this beautiful place and allowed the same kind of beachfront motels and pizza parlors that visitors could find on the mainland, there would be no reason for them to come the 30 miles out here, " he said in an interview with The New York Times in 1987.

Mr. Beinecke, who lived in Austin, Texas, in his later years, told The Times that he was not interested in preservation for preservation ' s sake: He wanted to make a profit. He and his partners took advantage of tax rules on depreciation and historic preservation and used the Nantucket properties to shelter income from other businesses.

Just as he hoped, property values increased greatly. He bought buildings for as little as $30,000, according to Money magazine in 2001, and sold his properties in 1987 to the First Winthrop Corp. of Boston for $55 million.

His Nantucket improvements were not always appreciated when they were happening, because he had a monopoly on most of Nantucket ' s businesses. Slogans like " No Man Is an Island " and " Ban the B " were heard in the late 1960s.

And although he won architectural and preservation awards, not all critics were charmed with his recreations of old styles. In 1979, Paul Goldberger, The Times architecture critic, called the effect " overly cute. "

Walter Beinecke Jr. was born Feb. 20, 1918, in Manhattan, and left school at 15 to join the Merchant Marine. After a year, he returned from his voyages intending to finish high school but he never did. He did not attend college.

He was a salesman and then a junior executive for American Tobacco; worked for the Kaiser-Frazer Co., an automobile maker; spent a brief time in the Army Corps of Engineers and worked for 12 years for S & H Green Stamps.

Mr. Beinecke contributed to the extensive Beinecke family gifts to Yale. The most renowned of these is the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. As part of his extensive philanthropy, he also contributed generously to Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., where he was a trustee.

Mr. Beinecke is survived by three daughters from his first marriage, to Jean Burrell, who died. They are Oliver of Columbia, S.C., and Nantucket; Deborah Beale of Boston and Nantucket; and Barbara Spitler of Tiffin, Ohio, and Nantucket. He also is survived by a son from his second marriage, to the former Maryann Hamachek of Waldoboro, Maine. He is Walter Beinecke III of Manchester, Mass.

His third wife, the former Joy Anne Dewey, died in 1989, leaving him four stepdaughters, Melissa Gilbert of Dover, Mass.; Alexandra Dewey of Pelham, Mass; Anni Dewey of Amherst, Mass.; and Sarah Windsor of Hope Valley, R.I. He is also survived by his wife, the former Bridgette Durckel, and two stepsons, James and Paul Schleicher of Austin.

Published by San Diego Union-Tribune on Jun. 1, 2004.

Walter Beinecke Jr., 86, a Savior of Old Nantucket, Dies

By Douglas Martin May 25, 2004
Walter Beinecke Jr., who combined good business with historic preservation on the island of Nantucket by investing in the saving and enhancing of the traditional architecture of its old whaling port, died on Sunday at the Nantucket home of his daughter Ann Oliver. He was 86.

The cause was myasthenia gravis, a muscle disease, Ellen Durckel Vestewig, his sister-in-law, said.

Mr. Beinecke, an heir to the S&H Green Stamp fortune, had the notion of reviving a deteriorating Nantucket by appealing to wealthy tourists. He did this by buying much of the town's waterfront, then fixing it up, building by building, filling in the holes with recreations and reproductions of 18th-century architecture.

Nantucket had been declining almost since the time the fictional Ahab steered the Pequod out of its harbor in the mid-19th-century in search of Moby-Dick. After World War II, the wharfs, shops and maritime buildings fell yet more steeply into decay, even as more and more people came to the island.

Development: Trading Up Nantucket

Friday, July 26, 1968

Not long after Ahab navigated the Pequod out of Nantucket, Mass., in search of Moby Dick, the economy of the small island off Cape Cod began to stagnate. With the whalers gone, the population dropped from 17,000 to 3,500 and construction stopped altogether, so that today 60% of the houses predate 1840, and only the scallop industry survives, grossing about $200,000 a year.

Tourism is another matter. Nantucket has become a favorite summer resort and tourist attraction. The population jumps to 16,000 in July and August; last summer 200,000 sightseers overran its quaint cobblestone streets and lolled on its beaches. Salty natives sneer that one-day visitors "come with a five-dollar bill and a dirty shirt and change neither." Nevertheless, local businessmen gladly pocket the $20 million a year spent annually on bus trips, postcards and clam chowder. In fact, the tourist trade is growing so rapidly that many "off-islanders," the regular summer residents, are concerned lest their historic hideaway lose its charm.

Walter Beinecke Jr., 50, heir to a sizable chunk of his family's Sperry & Hutchison Green Stamp fortune and a successful real estate developer and cattle rancher in his own right, thinks he has a solution for old Nantucket's people problems. Beinecke's idea is to "trade up" the island by finding fewer people who will spend more money. "Instead of selling six postcards and two hot dogs," he says, "you have to sell a hotel room and a couple of sports coats."

Fewer Passengers. To trade up, "Bud" Beinecke has been buying up. To attract yachtsmen, he and a Nantucket partner have bought out most of the deteriorated wharf front and constructed a large shopping center and marina complex that has tripled the number of yacht berths. To keep some of the penny-ante trippers away, he has refused to renew the lease on his docks for one of the excursion steamers out of Hyannis and demanded that the other carry fewer passengers at higher rates. To upgrade the mainstreet shopping area, he has bought up 80% of the commercial acreage in town, elbowed out marginal enterprises and replaced them with tony shops selling needlepoint and native-woven material.

Beinecke, who spent his first summer on Nantucket at the age of two, expects his commercial interests to turn a profit eventually—but money is not his main motive. He plans to turn his commercial holdings over to a foundation that will spend at least half the income restoring and maintaining historic buildings. Along with other off-islanders, he has also bought up undeveloped land for conservation. Basically, he explains, he is trying to preserve the island as it used to be.

Through a trust set up in 1957, he has poured millions into restoring churches, houses and landmarks. One of the oldest churches on the island has been missing its steeple since it blew away in a hurricane a hundred years ago. Beinecke has had a replica of the original steeple made in Boston, and next month will fly it over and install it by helicopter.

Between 1933 and 1935, Walter sailed around the world.

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jul 23 2022, 11:23:36 UTC

  ---

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jul 23 2022, 12:04:05 UTC
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jul 23 2022, 15:23:57 UTC