You were born in Shawnee, OK on March 6, 1940 to Martha Lanier-Graham and Floyd Graham. She had a privileged background and your father came from solid grass-roots earth people. You had one sibling, an older sister, Kit.

Many of your developing years were spent in your beloved Hawaii where your military father was stationed (early 1950s). You have always considered Hawaii your 'home'.  It was there that as a small boy you were initiated by a Shaman.

Your family moved to Dayton, Ohio. Dayton had an excellent academic high school and your parents felt your keen intellect would be nurtured there. You loved astronomy. You also began 'publishing' your own books during those youthful years. You were a real NERD, but there was one classmate who took you under his wing. He turned out to be one of your closest life-long friends. It was also here in Dayton, as a young boy, that you were tutored in metaphysical studies by a wise elder in your church known as "the old philosopher".

Later at Kenyon College you gave your first lecture on spirituality in art as an assignment from the Administration. There were students of other faiths who did not want to be forced to attend the weekly required Christian services. In 1960 when you were a sophomore at Kenyon, the Department of Religion asked you to teach the experimental course called "Sacred Art of World Religions". Those who attended would not be penalized for missing the weekly Christian services. In one way or another you have been teaching this subject ever since as a professor, museum curator, and an author.

1960s You attended American University, Washington, D.C. receiving a B.A. in Internal Political and Cultural Relations. You sought a career in cultural affairs. This goal changed when you heard a lecture by the artist, Robert Motherwell. He said to you privately after his lecture that modern art is the secular search for the sacred. It opened your heart-mind. This set in motion your graduate studies dual career goals at Columbia and NY University of becoming an art museum curator and a professor. While at Columbia you were fortunate to have private seminars with the American mythologist, Joseph Campbell. (Bill Moyers' interviews with Campbell became the very successful PBS series titled The Power of Myth.)

MoMA  NY—1960s  After graduating from Columbia, you started as an intern at MoMA and rose to become the Associate Curator of Architecture and Design. Alfred Barr, the Founding Director of MoMA became your mentor. Your assignments and accomplishments at MoMA were many. You helped design and develop the Bliss International Study Center and you also created a unique chess set that is still in production today. At one point you were directed to install in MoMA's sculpture garden Hector Guimard's "Metro" entrance to the Paris subway. That installation remains in place today. (On a trip to Paris, you had saved this priceless work by Guimard from the bulldozers. Later France honored you for doing this.)

In the 1960's you met and married your first wife, Rosemary Lake, a gentle, sensitive, lovely creature. The marriage produced your only child, but the marriage did not last.

SF museum years:  Ian White, Director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco came to New York to offer you the position of Curator for the Legion of Honor.  You accepted and moved to San Francisco. Together with Ian, the two of you along with Dianne Feinstein helped merge the deYoung and Legion of Honor into what has become known as the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). When the two museums merged, you became the first Chief Curator of the deYoung and the Legion (FAMSF).  Diane Feinstein, prior to Mayor Moscone's assassination, was head of the Board of Supervisors and later became Mayor after his tragic assassination in 1978.

Your mutual efforts helped the new institution become the world class museum it is today. During your tenure at FAMSF you wrote many exhibition catalogues*, presented several block-buster exhibitions (i.e. Van Gogh and King Tut) and recommended acquisition of major works of art for the FAMSF.  That is, you found paintings which - with the Director's endorsement - were recommended to the Board of Trustees for approval to purchase.

Ian White, retired former Director of the FAMSF has written about you:

"In 1971 Lanier wrote Three Centuries of American Paintings from the Collections of the M.H. deYoung Museum and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. This well written book was an eye-opener showing what the merged collections of American art amounted to. John Rockefeller, 3rd saw the book and it may have influenced his decision to give his collection of American art to the FAMSF which was announced in 1978. The Blanchette and John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection…with the existing merged collections added…it became evident that the FAMSF had the most extensive holdings of American art in the western United States."

1980s after leaving FAMSF You focused on wearing the hat of Cultural Planner through your private non-profit, Institute for Aesthetic Development (IAD).  Several of your projects included writing the masterplans for Ft. Mason (SF) and the Headlands Center for the Arts at the former Ft. Berry, overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Marin County.

Then off you went to the National Gallery of Australia, after which you returned to the U.S. to work for Norton Simon at his private Pasadena, CA museum. Mr. Simon's art collection was considered to be one of the world's greatest private art collections ever assembled.

Next you taught at both Humboldt State University and CalStateEastBay (Hayward). You also were the Gallery Director there. You enjoyed working with the student staff and creating innumerable exciting exhibitions.

You have authored many books - selling over one million copies.

For a more extensive profile, please google Lanier Graham plu s Who's Who in American Art or Who's Who in America or Who's Who in the World. One could say you are a "Who Who"!

Your MAGNUM OPUS is the donation to the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley of your private Sacred World Art Teaching Collection which you have acquired over the past 50+ years!

For more information on this Collection please enter the urls below:

https://www.gtu.edu/sacred-world/#welcome

https://www.gtu.edu/news/sage-classroom-innovative-form-education-opens-fall

This donation on your part culminates a life of service to humanity and represents your truly deep reverence for and love of art in general and sacred art specifically. You wrote a two volume study guide titled SPIRIT~MATTER to accompany the Collection. Also nearing completion is SPIRITUAL MODERNISM, A Guide to the Metaphysics of Modern Art. It is a bibliography of books in the English language with biographical profiles of the Artists including key statements by the Artists.

Regarding this Sacred World Art Collection you recently told me it is your most important legacy:

gks: How do you rank SPIRIT-MATTER in the world of all your other achievements?

Lanier: Mother Martha always said: "Living is for giving."  Godfather said: "The purpose of the soul is to serve, to be useful."

I'd like to think it was useful to help design and develop the Bliss International Study Center at MoMA, and [my work at] FAMSF, and the [Marin] Headlands, along with all those books and exhibitions and lectures.

But I think the GTU Collection and SPIRIT~MATTER are, longterm, the most useful things I've done in this lifetime.

It would be appropriate to say that if anyone really wanted to know about you, SPIRIT~MATTER in many ways is the source (along with all the "Who's Who" profiles).

To attempt to write a summary of your life is like trying to pour the ocean into a tea cup.

And now you have transitioned from Matter back into Spirit.

"The body will perish,

but the soul is immortal."

Rajinder Singh

Comment from me, your wife and the author of this piece:

You are my beloved husband. Divinity blessed me with the gift of you.

I will always love and cherish you.  Always.

Below is one of your many poems:

BEYOND the SENSES

When the senses

go out of sight

all that's left is

LIQUID LIGHT.

If one wishes to make a donation, please consider donating privately by using the links below for the World Central Kitchen or Doctors without Borders vs any links on this Funeral Chapel website:

(https://www.wck.org/donate) or

(https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org).

Thank you.