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September 13, 2002

Media Contacts: Pat JaCoby, 858 534-7404

JAMES STUART DESILVA, PHILANTHROPIST AND ART CONNOISSEUR, DIES SEPTEMBER 12 AT HOME IN RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIFORNIA

James Stuart DeSilva, 83, businessman, art patron and founder of the internationally renowned Stuart Collection at the University of California, San Diego, died unexpectedly at his Rancho Santa Fe home Sept. 12 of an apparent stroke.

A tall, soft-spoken modest man who believed that "sculptors need a friend and benefactor," DeSilva forged a partnership with UCSD in 1980 to establish his vision of a sculpture museum without walls. Initiated in 1982 with funds from a foundation that he established, the collection now contains 15 works and celebrated its 20th anniversary last year with a symposium of distinguished art scholars and artists. The Stuart Collection has been termed by art critics as "miraculous" and "groundbreaking." Noted Christopher Knight, art critic for the Los Angeles Times, "There is simply nothing comparable, anywhere in the nation, to this exceptional assembly of commissioned works."

In establishing the collection, DeSilva said he wanted it for students and the community, believing that "only by confronting and participating in contemporary art can one really know it." The initial piece in the collection was the exuberant, birdlike Sun God by Niki de Saint Phalle, which has become a UCSD campus icon and symbol.

"I have known Jim DeSilva for over 20 years and consider him one of the most interesting, contributing individuals I have ever known," said University of California President Richard C. Atkinson, during whose service as chancellor at UCSD the Stuart Collection was established. "He had a brilliant career in business, followed by an equally brilliant career in philanthropy. The Stuart Collection was his idea, and under his stewardship it has developed into one of the great art programs in the world. He also has been a close personal friend. His death is a great loss to the University and to the greater San Diego community."

UCSD Chancellor Robert C. Dynes said "The art world, the university and this city have lost a giant of a man. Jim's combination of vision, integrity and graciousness were without parallel. He was a beloved friend, a true gentleman, and an adviser whose quiet wisdom was simply profound. I treasure his memory and will see him always in his magnificent legacy, the Stuart Collection."

Pat Ledden, provost of Muir College at UCSD and the earliest supporter of DeSilva's vision for a campus sculpture collection, noted that "Jim was a wonderful man. In the 23 years we worked together on the Stuart Collection he was unfailingly generous and wise. All of us in the university and the art world are much poorer today for his loss."

Mary Livingstone Beebe, director of the Stuart Collection since its inception, said that "he was a heroic and wise patron, much beloved by all who knew him. He was a true champion of the arts and of the University."

DeSilva's passion for the fine arts began during his college days at the University of Chicago, where he attended symphony and opera performances. He joined the Navy as a pilot in World War II and served in the Pacific theater, reaching the rank of lieutenant commander. After the war DeSilva opened a tuna cannery in Puerto Rico and moved to New York, where the company was based.

In 1969, at the age of 50, DeSilva sold his cannery interests and enrolled for a year in Columbia University's graduate program in art history. He later told a reporter, "Next to my family decisions, I view that as the greatest decision of my life." In 1971, after divesting himself of his New York-based business interests, DeSilva and his wife, Marne, moved to San Diego where he established his own tuna fishing fleet.

In San Diego DeSilva served on the boards of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Museum of Art. He established the Kenram Corp., a tuna fishing and helicopter company in San Diego, and was president at the time of his death.

At UCSD, DeSilva was awarded the Chancellor's Associates Distinguished Service Medal and the Revelle Medal. He was a founding member of the Chancellor's Associates and has served on the UC San Diego Foundation Board, the Board of Overseers and as president of the Stuart Foundation.

He is survived by his wife, Marne, a painter who influenced his appreciation of art; a son, Peter DeSilva, and daughter, Dede Grant, both of Rancho Santa Fe; four grandchildren, Bodie DeSilva, Abby Howard, Marne Dwan and Benjamin Grant, and two great grandchildren.

No funeral service is planned. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the UCSD Foundation, 9500 Gilman Drive, #0940, La Jolla, Ca., 92093-0940, for the benefit of the Stuart Collection Fund.