name spouse known_for article_title education citizenship
thomas m. messer remedio garcia villa -lrb- 1948 -- -rrb- director of solomon r. guggenheim foundation 1961 -- 1988 thomas m. messer
 thiel , ma art history and museology harvard university college , boston university , ccfs sorbonne university u.s.
thomas m. messer

thomas maria messer -lrb- february 9 , 1920 -- may 15 , 2013 -rrb- was the director of the solomon r. guggenheim foundation , including the solomon r. guggenheim museum in new york city and the peggy guggenheim collection in venice , italy , for 27 years , a longer tenure than any of the city 's major arts institutions ' directors .
born and raised in czechoslovakia , messer became a u.s. citizen in 1944 and served in the u.s. army in world war ii .
he earned a master 's degree in art history and museology from harvard university .
from 1947 to 1961 , he worked in a series of art and museum administration positions , the last of which was director of the institute of contemporary art , boston .
in 1961 , he became director of the guggenheim museum in new york .
there , he was able to establish the usefulness of the spiral-shaped frank lloyd wright-designed guggenheim as a venue for the display of art , despite the doubts of critics and artists .
messer was instrumental in expanding the museum 's collection during his tenure , especially by persuading peggy guggenheim to donate her collection to the guggenheim foundation .
he retired in 1988 to take up freelance curating , teaching , writing , lecturing .
