When the late Ellerton Jetté (then owner of C.F. Hathaway Co.) and his wife, Edith, made their first sizable donation of art work to Colby in 1956, the collection of prized American Primitive paintings was hung in Dana Dining Hall.

But by then the nucleus of benefactors had formed for what would become a substantial museum of art at Colby. With the late Professor of Art James Carpenter leading the charge, the museum project had attracted the Jettés, Willard Cummings (co-founder of the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture) and President J. Seelye Bixler. Those key supporters and others were reaching out to patrons who could make a museum happen. Among them were the Wing sisters, Adeline and Caroline, Smith College alumnae from Bangor. Bixler, who had come Colby from Smith, brought them into the fold.

The Wings donated major works, including art by American Impressionist William Merritt Chase, and made substantial contributions toward the construction of the Bixler Art and Music Center, where the museum got started. Bixler also involved Jere Abbott, first associate director of the Museum of Modern Art, who remained engaged with the Colby museum until his death. When Abbott, whose family owned Maine textile mills, died in 1982, he left the museum $1.7 million for an acquisition fund. Ed Turner, a long-time and loyal Colby development officer and arts patron, later left $1 million, and the Colby museum has been on sound financial footing ever since.

A Colby student puts the final touches on Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing No. 803-Wavy Color Bands in the museum's foyer.

With the endowment, Gourley worked to develop a teaching museum that would contain the most desirable contemporary and historical art. Gabriella De Ferrari, the former director of Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art and a member of the Colby museum's Board of Governors, explained it simply: "Good things happen when the chemistry is right. Hugh was so receptive and generous and ambitious for the museum that everyone wanted to help him."

In the 1970s the Jettés donated their American Impressionist collection. John Marin Jr. and his wife, Norma, gave the Marin collection (to be featured in a catalogue due out this summer). The Payson Collection of American Art made its way to Colby in 1992 after it was moved from Westbrook College to the Portland Museum of Art. The collection is loaned to Colby every other year, adding to the breadth of the museum's offerings. And as the collection has grown, so has the constellation of benefactors.

De Ferrari, an art collector and arts writer, met Gourley in the 1970s in Boston when Colby loaned work for an exhibit she was curating. They stayed in touch, and De Ferrari's involvement with Colby grew when her daughter, Bree Jeppson '93, enrolled as a student. Now both De Ferrari and Jeppson are members of the museum's Board of Governors, providing, with others, important ties to the larger art world. Paul Schupf contributed the naming gift, and some of the finest pieces of art, for the wing that bears his name and holds the works of Alex Katz. Waterville philanthropists and long-time museum supporters Peter '56 H'98 and Paula Lunder H'98 gave the naming gift to build the Lunder Wing to exhibit the museum's permanent collection of American art.

"When people become involved with Colby and the Museum, they really feel strongly about it and follow through for years and years," said Paula Lunder, a member of the Board of Governors and a Colby trustee.