On April 24, hundreds of members of the Kenyon community gathered to celebrate the life of visionary architect Graham Gund ’63 H’81.
Paul Goldberger P’04 H’05, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architect, knew Gund for decades as a member of the Kenyon Board of Trustees and later board member of his namesake teaching art museum on campus. In his remarks, Goldberger called Gund’s relationship to Kenyon like no other architect’s relationship to any campus, and like few other philanthropists’ relationship to any institution. “The word that comes first to mind is ‘transformed,’ but to say that Graham transformed Kenyon is both too grand and too unsubtle, because what Graham did here was something much more profound than transformation. Graham did not want to make Kenyon different. He understood the beauty inherent in this place, and he worked to strengthen it, building by building, not to change Kenyon but to make it more what it had always wanted to be.”
Delaney Marrs ’26, a Gund Associate, and Grace Galligan ’26, KenyonFit Instructor in the Lowry Center, spoke about the ways Gund-designed spaces shaped their time at Kenyon.
“I’ve spent hours wandering through the stacks of Chalmers, or in an Oden classroom reading about the witch trials, or on the porch of Keithley writing my thesis,” Galligan said. “I’ve welcomed families to campus in Lowell House as a tour guide. Senior year, I moved into a Winkler apartment and watched the seasons turn over from our windows overlooking the river.
“Gund’s buildings are not just stone and steel; his buildings are the lives we live within them. For me, they contain all these memories.”
President Julie Kornfeld spoke on behalf of past Kenyon presidents who each knew and worked with Gund during their time at the helm. “I cannot tell you how valuable it is, as the president of a college, to benefit from the vision — and investment — of someone like Graham, although there truly is no one like him. As was made clear so well today, Graham was much more than a supporter of Kenyon and the arts, he burnished our legacy and traditions by creating structures and spaces that have and will continue to allow Kenyon to grow and evolve,” she said.
In addition to the event, two exhibitions celebrating Gund’s legacy are on display: one in the Bulmash Exhibition Hall in Chalmers Library and a student-curated exhibit of works donated by Graham and Ann in the Buchwald-Wright Gallery in The Gund.
Temporary signs were installed around campus, until April 27, noting the Kenyon legacy of Gund.
Speakers
Click on each speaker's name to read their remarks.
Jeff Bowman
Provost, Kenyon College
Daisy Desrosiers
David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation Director and Chief Curator of The Gund at Kenyon College
Delaney Marrs ’26
Gund Associate
Grace Galligan ’26
KenyonFit Instructor
Paul Goldberger P'04 H'05
Kenyon College Trustee Emeritus
The Gund at Kenyon College Board Member
The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth Jr.
Former Bishop of Ohio
Kenyon College Trustee Emeritus
David Horvitz '74 H'98
Kenyon College Trustee
The Gund at Kenyon College Board Member
Julie Kornfeld
President, Kenyon College