In Remembrance: Richard Gachot ’55 Died on August 31 2018

Richard Gachot (class of 1955) died August 31, 2018, in Old Westbury, New York. Born in New York City in 1933, Richard studied studio art and art history at Yale. The memory of Josef Albers writing his name on a blackboard with both hands at once stayed with Richard his whole life, even though his plans to continue to pursue graduate studies in art at Yale were derailed by a freak accident.

Instead, he began a career as an advertising executive in New York, creating inventive campaigns for Chiquita and other clients. He became active in historical preservation on Long Island, cofounding the Historical Society of the Westburys and serving as president of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities and as a trustee of Old Westbury Gardens.

In the early 1980s he retired from advertising to focus on art. His spirited carved-wood and found-object sculpture was most recently recognized with a one-man show at the Hecksher Museum. He survived his wife, Irene, by five years and leaves behind five sons: Richard, Theodore, Peter, Paul, and John. 

—Submitted by the family.