In Remembrance: A. Burton Closson ’52 Died on May 13 2026

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A. Burton Closson Jr. died May 13, 2026, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the former president of the A. B. Closson Jr. Co., a four-generation fine arts firm founded in 1866 by his great-grandfather, where he worked for 40 years. He loved his job so much that he once said he “had never really worked a day in his life.”

Burton was born October 20, 1930, in Cincinnati, the son of Lucinda Rodgers Closson and A. Burton Closson. He was the beloved husband of Susan Mehnert Closson and the adored father of Lucinda Closson Dean  (Paul) and Laura Closson Hyde (Arthur), and stepfather of Sarah Reynolds O’Donoghue (Barry), Elizabeth Reynolds Stusnick (Michael), and Martha Reynolds Winter (Vincent). He leaves five grandchildren: Arthur Dwight Hyde IV (Lindsay), Henry Burton Hyde (Chelsea), Asa Maclay Hyde (Christina), Laura Closson Dean (Carmine Grimaldi), John Gunther Dean II; two step-grandchildren: Shawn and Brendan O’Donoghue; and eight great-grandchildren: Arthur, Lila, Wayne, Jackson, Closson, and Maclay Hyde, and Nicolas and Lucia Grimaldi.

He graduated from St. Paul’s School and Yale University and served as a sergeant in the army from 1952 to 1954.

He was a past vestryman of St. Thomas Episcopal Church where he was a lay reader. He volunteered for the Radio Reading Service. He did volunteer work and served on the boards of the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Playhouse in the Park, the Contemporary Arts Center, the Taft Museum, and Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum.

He was a past member president of the Camargo Club, the Racquet Club, and the Yale Club of Cincinnati; was a member of the Commonwealth Club of Cincinnati and the Union Club of New York, the Little Club and St. Andrews Club in Gulf Stream, Florida, and the Abenakee Club in Biddeford Pool, Maine.  He was a past governor of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Ohio.

Burton was an avid reader of history, a passionate supporter of music, theater, and the arts, a nonstop storyteller, an ardent and lucky golfer (7 holes-in-one), and enjoyed cooking clay pot gin chicken and making venison tartare. He was a lifelong inquisitive world traveler and visited over 100 countries with his adventurous wife, Susan. 

—Submitted by the family.