Amyas Ames, A Champion of Lincoln Center, Dead at 93

Amyas Ames Photo by Michael C. Burke courtesy of Lincoln Center

Amyas Ames, an investment banker and former board chairman of both the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, died on January 24 at a retirement community in Lexington, MA. He was 93.

Mr. Ames was managing partner at Kidder, Peabody & Company and chairman of its executive committee. He also served as president of the Investment Bankers Association.

In an article in the The New York Times on the occasion of his appointment to the Lincoln Center post in 1970, Mr. Ames explained his desire to "tie the performing arts into political developments, into the fight to improve the quality of life, the quality of the environment in our cities."

Elected to the board of the New York Philharmonic in 1955, Mr. Ames became its president in 1963 and served as chairman from 1970 until 1983. In 1970, after the retirement of John D. Rockefeller III, Ames also accepted the appointment as chairman of Lincoln Center, a post he held for 10 years.

During his tenure at Lincoln Center, Ames headed two major endowment drives that raised over $28 million. He also instigated the New York Philharmonic's free "Concerts in the Parks" series in 1965, oversaw the creation of the "Live from Lincoln Center" television broadcasts, and solicited the support of Avery Fisher for renovation of Philharmonic Hall, which was reopened in 1976 as Avery Fisher Hall.

Born in Sharon, MA In 1906, Mr. Ames attended Harvard where he played baseball and performed on clarinet in the Harvard Band. After graduating in 1928, he entered Harvard Business School. Three years later, he moved to New York to begin his career at Kidder, Peabody & Co.

In addition to his work in support of the arts, Mr. Ames was also an avid environmentalist and nature photographer. A collection of his photographs and essays entitled "The Private Lives of our Natural Neighbors" was published by George Braziller of New York.

Mr. Ames was married for 60 years to Evelyn I. Perkins, a published poet and author, who died in 1990. In 1995 he married Lucia Millham of Locust Valley, NY, who worked in hospital administration, and who survives him.

Besides his wife, Mr. Ames is survived by four children from his first marriage: two sons, Edward and Oakes, both of New York City; two daughters, Olivia Hoblitzelle of Cambridge, MA, and Joan Ames of Eugene, OR, as well as 11 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.