Pissarro and Other Masters: About The Stoddards

February 19 - April 17, 2000

After giving anonymously to the Museum for decades, the Stoddards created the Stoddard Acquisition Fund in 1979. Their gift more than doubled the Museum's endowment for acquiring art, and has funded some of the Museum's most significant purchases. These include the Museum's first Surrealist painting, Voice of Silence by René Magritte, which was just acquired and will be unveiled in the Stoddard show.

Robert Stoddard, who died in 1984, was president and chairman of the board of Wyman-Gordan Company for more than 40 years. He also was a trustee of the Worcester Art Museum for 30 years, and served as chairman of the board of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Helen Stoddard was deeply committed to Museum programs until her death in 1998, at the age of 94. She was a founder of the Museum's Members' Council in 1949, and received its Volunteer Award of Merit in 1982. She was also in the Museum's first class of docents (1971), and remained an active volunteer into her nineties. One of the Stoddards' two daughters, Judy King, is currently a member of the Museum's Board of Trustees and serves on its Collections Committee.