David Beals Findlay Jr.: Owner of Art Gallery That Bore His Name

From Hoyt Funeral Home.

David Beals Findlay Jr. of New Canaan, died peacefully on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015 at Norwalk Hospital, with his family at his bedside. He had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage upon awakening the previous Friday morning.

Dave was born in Kansas City, MO to David Beals Findlay, a third generation art dealer, and Harriet Jones Findlay.

His family moved to New York City, then to Darien in 1936 when his father established the David Findlay Galleries in New York City. They joined the Tokeneke Club and Dave attended nursery school, then the Royle Elementary School in Darien.

In 1943 the Findlays purchased Extown Farm in New Canaan, where they
kept cows, caged chickens and turkeys, and pigs; the farm provided milk,
eggs, poultry, smoked meat, and vegetables to the local markets during
World War II. A barn on the property was converted to a basketball court
for him and his friends in town. Dave attended Center School and St.
Luke’s School in New Canaan.

In 1948 he entered Deerfield Academy as a sophomore, class of ’51. He
was on the varsity lacrosse team for two years and captain of the team his
senior year; varsity soccer for two years, and varsity hockey his senior year,
when they beat St. Mark’s School 5-0 in the old Madison Square Garden.

He attended all Deerfield reunions, created an annual Deerfield Dinner in
NYC, and enjoyed talking frequently to his classmates as Class Secretary.
The Deerfield Alumni Magazine doubled in size with his successful efforts
to encourage his classmates to contribute notes.

Dave double majored at Cornell, receiving a BS in Mechanical Engineering
and an MBA in 1955 and was a member of Chi Psi. After graduation he
married Birgit Nielsen from New Canaan in 1958 in the First Presbyterian
Church of new Canaan, moved to Wilton briefly, and had four children:
Harald Beals, Kimberly Wrede, Lee Wrede, and Michael Nielsen. They
moved to Fawn Lane in New Canaan and finally into his current home on
Father Peter’s Lane in 1968.

He worked for IBM in computer sales, then for McKinsey and Co in NYC,
with consulting projects all over the world. Following a brief stint at the
Beech-Nut Corporation, he joined Lehman Brothers until 1976, when, after
20 years in finance, he joined his brother and sister as a partner in his
father’s gallery when it expanded on Madison Avenue. The business
specialized in American and European paintings and sculpture. In 1982
Dave started his own gallery, David Findlay Jr. Gallery, with a focus on
American art. The gallery had been a source of great satisfaction before
his death and he was proud to have his daughter Lee join him in its
management.

In 1973 Dave married the former Mimi Adams from Darien, adding two
step-daughters to his family - Sinclair (Sindi) and Holbrook (Holly/Brook)
Adams.

Dave loved to ski and went cat-skiing at Selkirk Wilderness Skiing in British
Columbia forty times, frequently taking a child or grandchild with him. His
other passion was golf: he became a golf member of the Country Club of
New Canaan in 1968 and served as President 2004-06. Subsequently he
join the Sankaty Head Golf Club in Nantucket and the John’s Island Club in
Vero Beach, Florida, and was a member of the Musketeers, with whom he
played 18 holes followed by lunch the day before his stroke.

He was a great communicator, eschewing emails for telephone calls to
children and grandchildren on a regular basis. His engineering studies
shaped much of the way he approached later life. Dave enjoyed analyzing
issues and wrestling in his mind to get understanding of how and why
things work. He loved to talk with people from a wide range of
backgrounds and interests and learned much from these conversations.

The pile of books on various topics that he dragged to Nantucket annually
for the month of August was as varied as it was voluminous: history,
philosophy, medical (he suffered his entire life from headaches recently
controlled with medications), and art books.

He was a trustee of the New Canaan Library Board from 1968 to 1974, and its President 1971-1973.

Together with his wife Mimi, to whom he was married 42 years, he enjoyed
a life-long interest in arts, architecture, history and antiques, frequently
traveling on international tours with an academic or arts focus. He loved the out of doors and had fond memories of summers spent at Forestcraft Camp on Lake Saranac in the Adirondacks and at Camp Lanakila in Vermont.

More recently he traveled with his daughter Lee and her family to Nairobi
and with daughter Kim down the Colorado River. He never missed a
graduation of a child or grandchild – Mimi calculates it totaled about 23!

David is survived by his wife Mimi, his brother Peter Findlay of New York
City and Salisbury, CT, daughters Kim Findlay of Charlotte, VT and Lee Findlay Potter of New York City; step-daughters Sindi Adams Sheers of McLean, VA and Brook Adams Visser of Framingham, MA, and sons Hal Findlay of Delray Beach, FL and Michael Findlay of New Haven, VT. He has 19 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter residing throughout the United States.

Following a private burial in the Jones family plot in Independence,
MO, a Memorial Service in Celebration of Dave Findlay’s wonderful life
will be held on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 11 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of New Canaan.

The family asks that contributions be made in his name to the David B.
Findlay Jr. Scholarship Fund at Deerfield Academy, or to the Herbert F.
Johnson Museum at Cornell University.