Latest news with #Luers
Boston Globe
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
William H. Luers, diplomat and Met museum leader, dies at 95
Advertisement 'It's precisely where I find one can get most rapidly into a foreign culture,' he told The New York Times in 1985, discussing his love of art. 'It's through talking with and knowing contemporary artists, and learning about the history through art and culture.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Fluent in Russian, Spanish, and Italian, Mr. Luers spent nearly three decades in the Foreign Service, specializing in Soviet affairs. He held diplomatic postings in Naples and Moscow, was a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Ford and Carter administrations, and was ambassador to Venezuela and then Czechoslovakia before retiring in 1986 to become president of the Met. For the next 13 years, he managed the administration, budget, community relations, and fund-raising of the country's largest art museum. He led the institution in tandem with Philippe de Montebello, the Met's longtime director, in a power-sharing arrangement that was often described as strained. Advertisement Mr. Luers coordinated financing for landmark exhibitions, including a 1990 survey of Mexican art, and helped win a historic gift from publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, who agreed to bequeath roughly $1 billion worth of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. Mr. Luers, in a gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan in 1999. Angel Franco/NYT 'He's indefatigable,' Carl Spielvogel, a Met trustee who later served as ambassador to Slovakia, said in 1999, as Mr. Luers prepared to step down at age 70. 'I don't know many people willing to be out at breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week, but he was. And he was very good at it.' As an ambassador, Mr. Luers charmed many of America's most prominent writers and artists, hosting embassy gatherings that drew John Updike, Arthur Miller, William Styron, Peter Matthiessen, Francine du Plessix Gray, and Frank Stella. Mr. Luers's wife said that he became convinced of the value of cultural diplomacy in 1963, as a junior officer at the US Embassy in Moscow. Because of his Russian language skills, he had been assigned to accompany John Steinbeck and Edward Albee on a writers' exchange trip through the Soviet Union, serving as their interpreter and helping them navigate 'the bureaucratic morass,' as he later put it. 'One night in Odessa we went to see an opera, 'Khovanshchina,' which depicts an enormous tragedy in which everyone is burned up in a fire,' he told the Times in 1997. 'That night we went back to our hotel and learned that John F. Kennedy had been shot. The Russians sat up with us that night, and it was quite a moving scene to see them almost as frightened as we were, and so sympathetic.' Advertisement Art, he concluded, could offer an opening, even between adversaries. As ambassador to Venezuela from 1978 to 1982, Mr. Luers sought to distinguish himself from previous envoys who were treated with disdain within the country because of their associations with the US military and business interests. He bought local art, trumpeted his love of Venezuelan culture, and hosted writers including Styron and Updike. He also organized an embassy exhibition of American art, mounting works by Stella and Joan Mitchell. The show's opening drew Venezuela's president, as well as a Caracas journalist who had been critical of Mr. Luers in articles about the oil industry. 'Ambassador,' Mr. Luers recalled him saying, 'after tonight you can do anything you want with oil. You can get away with anything, you know.' After being appointed ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1983, Mr. Luers leveraged his literary connections on behalf of Havel, who had recently spent several years in prison as a result of his pro-democracy efforts. Fearing that the dissident and playwright might be killed by the communist regime, Mr. Luers launched a publicity campaign on Havel's behalf, bringing in American writers and dignitaries including Time Inc. editor Henry A. Grunwald and Washington Post Co. chair Katharine Graham. His efforts helped elevate Havel's profile in the West, providing a bit of diplomatic cover for the writer and his allies in the dissident movement known as Charter 77. 'Havel had ways of talking about the communist system that I thought were uniquely subtle, profound, and ultimately effective,' Mr. Luers said in a 2015 interview with Hamilton College, his alma mater. Advertisement Still, Mr. Luers said he had little sense that 'this sort of short, shy intellectual' would go on to be elected Czechoslovakia's president in 1989, after the country's communist system was peacefully toppled by the Velvet Revolution. 'Bill shone the light on Havel and the other dissidents,' said his wife, Wendy, a former Amnesty International staffer who started the Foundation for a Civil Society, a New York-based nonprofit. 'We became very good friends with his brother. I became very close to his wife, Olga. To the point that when he became president, he wore Bill's tie when he was inaugurated, and she wore my blouse.' Two months later, in February 1990, the Luers hosted the Czechoslovak president and his wife on a visit to New York City, where Mr. Luers gave Havel a personal tour of his new workplace, the Met. Havel, according to the Times, 'wanted to see the Abstract Expressionist paintings.' The youngest of three children, William Henry Luers was born in Springfield, Ill., on May 15, 1929. His mother looked after the home. His father, the son of a German immigrant, was a banker who served in World War I and again in World War II, when he was wrongly accused of spying for the Nazis while serving as an officer in the Army Air Forces. He was exonerated after a year-long military investigation, according to Mr. Luers. Mr. Luers studied math and science at Hamilton College in New York, received a bachelor's degree in 1951 and enrolled in graduate school at Northwestern University, where he planned to study for a career in chemical engineering. After taking classes with literary critic Richard Ellmann, an authority on James Joyce, he decided to focus on the humanities instead. He studied philosophy, developed an interest in Russian history and the influence of Marxism, and briefly contemplated becoming an Episcopal priest. Advertisement During the Korean War, Mr. Luers joined the Navy, serving as an officer for about five years beginning in 1952. He joined the Foreign Service in 1957, while looking for a way to travel to Moscow, and received a master's degree in Russian studies from Columbia University the next year. Mr. Luers had four children from his first marriage, to Jane Fuller, which ended in divorce. In 1979, he married Wendy Woods Turnbull. In addition to his wife, he leaves three of his children, David and Will Luers and Amy Lynd Luers; two stepdaughters, Ramsay and Connor Turnbull; and 10 grandchildren. His son Mark Luers died of esophageal cancer in 2020. Mr. Luers remained active in diplomatic circles - occasionally, he joked, he used his former title, ambassador, 'to get dinner reservations' - and wrote op-eds about foreign affairs for publications including The Washington Post and the Times. He also taught at Columbia University and helped lead the Iran Project, a group that promotes the use the use of diplomacy to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Last year, he published a memoir, 'Uncommon Company,' in which he lamented 'the static and toxic state of America today.' 'My message to the leaders of this country is clear: Diplomacy works,' he wrote. 'We must talk to the other. However, until we ourselves can learn to talk with the other who lives next door, until we learn to listen with civility to family and friends and strangers alike, it will be impossible to suggest to other nations that they do the same, but on a global stage.' Advertisement
Indianapolis Star
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana's top basketball players to relive Hickory vs. Terhune in annual game at Hoosier Gym
The Hoosier Gym All-Star Classic is set for Saturday at the home of the Hickory Huskers. The annual high school basketball all-star event for senior players will begin with the girls at 11 a.m., followed by the boys game. The venue is the gym in Knightstown made famous by the movie ' Hoosiers.' There are still 200 tickets available, which can be purchased at Bobby Plump, the star of the 1954 Milan team that inspired the movie, will be the honorary guest for this year's game. Here are the rosters: Girls Jacklynn Hosier, Alexandria (Vermont) Aniah Smith, Avon (Jacksonville) Avery Gordon, Brownsburg (Purdue) Addison Baxter, Columbia City (Butler) Nevaeh Dickman, Fishers (Buffalo) Lily Graves, Franklin Central (Southern Indiana) Gabby Spink, Gibson Southern (Murray State) Leah West, Greensburg (Belmont) Maya Makalusky, Hamilton Southeastern (Indiana) Hadley Crosier, Lanesville (Maryville) Jaylah Lampley, Lawrence Central (Mississippi State) Laila Abdurraqib, Lawrence Central (New Mexico) Kya Hurt, Lawrence North (Illinois State) Jamaya Thomas, Lawrence North (Northern Kentucky) Meredith Tippner, Noblesville (Miami, Fla.) Kaycie Warfel, Pendleton Heights (Taylor) Kira Reynolds, South Bend Washington (UT-Arlington) Monique Mitchell, South Bend Washington (Akron) Ellie Richardson, Scottsburg (Western Carolina) Kenzie Garner, Sheridan (Ferris State) Ella Bobe, South Knox (Southern Indiana) Addie Bowsman, Twin Lakes (St. Francis) Brooke Winchester, Warsaw (Ball State) Boys Azavier Robinson, Lawrence North (Butler) Grady Carpenter, Tipton (Grace) Dezmon Briscoe, Crispus Attucks (Uncommitted) Julius Gizzi, New Palestine (Indiana Wesleyan) Justin Kirby, Fishers (Miami, Ohio) Tre Singleton, Jeffersonville (Northwestern) Mark Zackery IV, Ben Davis (Notre Dame) Gavin Betten, Manchester (Grace) Brady Koehler, Cathedral (Notre Dame) Braylon Mullins, Greenfield-Central (UConn) Chase Barnes, Fort Wayne Wayne (UIndy) Ethan Edwards, Whiteland (UIndy) Chase Konieczny, South Bend St. Joseph (Uncommitted) Damien King, Anderson (UT-Martin) Drelyn Truesdale, Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (Uncommitted) Dereon Truesdale, Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (Uncommitted) Bryson Cardinal, Guerin Catholic (Uncommitted) Luke Lindeman, Bloomington North (Marian) Boston Willard, Greenfield-Central (Uncommitted) P.J. Douglas, Jeffersonville (Wright State) Michael Cooper, Jeffersonville (Wright State)
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Yahoo
Police: Fugitive predatory sex offender may be in Minneapolis
Authorities are asking the public for help finding a Level 3 predatory sex offender who allegedly fled his residence, and the supervision of local police, in Winona. Richard Martin Luers, 60, may be in the Minneapolis area, "particularly near the University of Minnesota," according to an alert from the Minneapolis Police Department. He now has an active arrest warrant. According to Minnesota's sex offender registry, Luers has a lengthy — and violent — criminal record. Sign up for our BREAKING NEWS newsletters "Richard Luers has a history of kidnapping and engaging in sexual contact with unknown adult females. Contact included sexual touching and penetration. Luers gained access to two females by approaching them in public and forcing them to another location and entered another female's home without permission. Luers used force, weapons, threats, and restraint of females to gain compliance." Minneapolis police note that Luers has used a firearm in some of his crimes. He's described as 5'10" and 175 pounds, with gray hair and hazel eyes. However, authorities are warning anyone who spots Luer not to approach him and instead "call 911 immediately." Anyone with information on his whereabouts can also submit an anonymous tip to CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online at Note: The details provided in this story are based on law enforcement's latest version of events, and may be subject to change.
