DISTINGLJISHED ART HISTORIAN and enthusiastic and inspiring professor of art history at Columbia for 40 years, George died Jan. 5, 1993, at the Falmouth, Mass., nursing home where he had been under care for Alzheimer's disease.
After earning his M.F.A. at Princeton in 1942, George volunteered for duty with the American Field Service (194245) in the Middle East, North Africa, and the E.T.O. In 1946, he joined the Columbia faculty and in ensuing years became a leading scholar and champion of Antonio Gaudi's distinctive architecture. He wrote 26 books and articles on Gaudi, including ANTONIO GAUDI (1960), the first book in English on Gaudi. He also founded the definitive collection on Gaudi and his Catalan "modernismo" style, the Amigos de Gaudi U.S.A., which became the George R. Collins Archive of Catalan Art and Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago.
City planning from ancient to modern times was among his many interests. With his wife, Christiane Crasemann, also an art historian, he wrote CAMILLO SITTE AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN CITY PLANNING. He was the editor of the series "Cities and Planning" published by George Brazifter.
To Christiane and his sons David, Nicolas, and Luke, we offer our sincere sympathy.
The Class of 1939