Lee Ault, connoisseur of the arts, Maine lover, publisher, and oil explorer, died Apr. 7, 1996, after a prolonged illness.
Lee spent most of his working life producing quality art books and magazines, operating an art gallery in NYC, collecting paintings and sculpture, and supporting the arts. He advised in 1951 that he was "gradually switching from book publishing to oil exploration as a principal occupation, putting out a few books on art a year."
Following several years as president of the Quadrangle Press, a publisher of quality art books, he became publisher of Art in America in 1957. He sold it to Whitney Communications in 1970. He then opened the Lee Ault & Co. art gallery in NYC in 1970 and focused on 20th century and primitive art. The gallery was closed in 1978 when he retired.
He prepared at St. Paul's School, but he left Princeton early. He commenced his business career as a reporter for Newsweek magazine and was a director of Vision, Inc. During WWII, he served in the American Field Service attached to the British 8th Army in North Africa and later was a first lt. in the Marine Corps in the South Pacific.
Survivors include his wife, Laura Leonard Ault, a son, Lee A. III, a daughter, Dorothy A. Noble, seven grandchildren, and seven greatgrandchildren.
The Class of 1937