NIXON, Diane Allen
Diane Allen Nixon, 89, of New York, NY, and Skytop, PA, died peacefully at home, in New York, on June 25, 2024. She was predeceased by her parents, John F., and Nan (née, Allen) Nixon; and is survived by many Allen cousins and their families, Pamela (Lawrence) Garlick, Anne (Robert) Meyer, Linda (Robert) Owen, Leslie (Jimmy) Danner, Nan (Barry) Britt, Lucy (Alfred) Leach, Quinton Smith, Mose (Kristin) Smith, Reid (Kelly) Smith, Rosemary (Jason) Prather and John (Danielle) Booth.
Diane attended the Spence School in New York, graduated in 1953 from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, CT, and from Smith College in 1957. Her junior year in Florence opened her eyes to the world at large – its people, cultures, languages, and art. The experience would inform the rest of her life.
After time spent modeling at Elizabeth Arden in the late 1950s and working at Alitalia in New York in the early 1960s, Diane hit upon the perfect professional path – that of a top notch travel agent at the firm of Bellinger Davis, subsequently purchased by Protravel International, where she worked for approximately 50 years, from the mid-1960s until 2016. Intelligent, curious, and open-minded, meticulous and detailed-oriented, a globetrotter by nature, Diane made friends and connections around the world. Her infectious enthusiasm and expertise at what she did resulted in unforgettable trips for countless individuals, families, and institutions. Her professional life in the travel field brought her and her clients, so many of them friends, tremendous pleasure.
Diane's love of travel was matched, equally, by her love of art – fine, decorative, and performing. Encouraged by Charles Ryskamp, a former Director of The Pierpont Morgan Library and The Frick Collection, Diane turned her attention in the mid-1990s to collecting Old Master drawings. Within 20 years, by 2015, she had formed one of the best collections of its kind in private hands. Entitled, "Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings," a selection of drawings from Diane's collection was exhibited in 2007 at both The Morgan Library & Museum and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. "Drawn to Excellence: Renaissance to Romantic Drawings from a Private Collection," a subsequent selection of drawings from Diane's collection, was exhibited at the Smith College Museum of Art and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, in 2012-2013. Diane's openness to lending her drawings to international exhibitions, and to sharing her collection with anyone who expressed the slightest interest in European Master drawings, was unwavering.
Diane served for many years as a Trustee of The Morgan Library & Museum, and acted as first Chair of the Fairfax Murray Society within its Department of Drawings and Prints. She was a long-serving member of the Board of Directors of the Master Drawings Association, whose scholarly publication, "Master Drawings," is tasked with the dissemination of knowledge about European and American drawings from the Renaissance to the present day. She served as a member of the Trustees' Council of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and was especially generous in her long-standing and fond association with its Department of Prints and Drawings. She was a Tryon Associate of the Smith College Museum of Art; a member of the Ottley Group within the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum; a member of the International Circle at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; a member of the Board of the American Associates of the Royal Academy Trust; and a founding Board member of the American Federation for Aging Research, where she served as a Trustee for over thirty years and Vice Chair for several years. The Deeds Foundation, founded with her mother, directs its philanthropy to the arts, education, medicine, and those less fortunate. The Frick Collection, New York City Ballet, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, The Rockefeller University, the Gregorian University Foundation, Learning Ally (formerly, Recording for the Blind), the Lee Pesky Learning Center, the Cornelia Connelly Center, SCAN-Harbor, Ronald McDonald House, Americares, and City Harvest have been beneficiaries of the Deeds Foundation's philanthropy. Diane's generosity to and support of the institutions, and individuals therein, she loved, was unfettered.
Her time at Skytop was another source of joy, where Diane made lifelong friends and spent her weekends gardening and in the outdoors.
A bright light in many worlds, Diane will be greatly missed.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at the Church of St. Thomas More, New York, on July 10, 2024 at 10 AM. Diane will be interred in the Allen family mausoleum in Buford, GA. In lieu of flowers, donations in Diane's memory may be made to The Morgan Library & Museum (directed to the Fairfax Murray Society within the Department of Drawings & Prints), or to the American Federation for Aging Research.
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