Many of the people who helped make the museum possible are no longer here to celebrate, Mrs. Semans points out.

She remembers the late Doug Knight, who served as Duke University's fifth president during the 1960s, and who pushed hard for the university to accept the gift of the Ernest Brummer collection of medieval sculpture and paintings in 1966. Thanks in part to Knight's leadership, the Duke University Museum of Art (DUMA) was established in 1969, in a former science building on East Campus.

She remembers the late Dr. William S. Heckscher, the German-born art historian and artist who came to Duke in 1966 to become chairman of the Art and Art History Department until 1969. He was director of DUMA from 1970 to 1974. He felt strongly that the museum should be an essential part of the university.

Mrs. Semans remembers the late Nancy Hanks, the 1949 Duke Woman's College alumna who was chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1969 to 1977, and who served with Mrs. Semans on the Duke Board of Trustees in the late '60s. Hanks was a champion of the arts at Duke. After her death in 1983, an endowment was established in her name that still provides crucial support to Duke and the Nasher Museum of Art. The museum's Nancy Hanks Senior Curator is Sarah Schroth.

She remembers William Stars and John Spencer, past directors of the former DUMA, who worked hard to establish the museum's reputation in the 1970s and 80s.

Mrs. Semans remembers Dr. John O. Blackburn, who generously supported the museum while he was provost from 1970 to 1971.

She remembers Michael Mezzatesta, director of DUMA for 17 years until 2003, who worked tirelessly toward realizing the new museum. She notes particularly how he championed the new museum and poured his energy and enthusiasm into it.

She remembers her late mother, Mary Duke Biddle, who created a charitable foundation in 1956, near the end of her life. To date, The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation has awarded grants to Duke University totaling more than $30 million.

Since the museum's inception, the Biddle Foundation has generously given annual support to fund such programs as educational outreach, publications, art conservation, exhibitions and summer internships for students. This year, the Foundation gave $1 million to name one of the three gallery pavilions for the late Nicholas Benjamin Duke Biddle, the brother of Mrs. Semans and one of the first trustees of the Foundation.

Mrs. Semans remembers her late husband, Dr. James H. Semans, who attended many exhibition openings, Brummer dinners and other special events at her side. The couple's Duke-Semans Fine Arts Foundation has long worked closely with the museum and Duke students in supporting student-curated exhibitions. The Foundation has also made long-term loans to the museum of works by John Singer Sargent and Thomas Eakins, among other important artists. The museum raised funds to support the annual Mary and Jim Semans Lectures, to honor the couple.

This past spring, after Dr. Semans' death, an anonymous donation of $100,000 was made to the museum in his name, to establish an endowment to support future exhibitions.

"He was so dedicated to the idea of the museum," Mrs. Semans said. "We used to dream together."

The extended Duke family has helped the museum in many ways, too. The Duke Endowment, a charitable trust in Charlotte, N.C., has contributed $2.5 million to name the Great Hall in honor of Mrs. Semans, its chairman emerita. The endowment also has funded the directorship of the museum.

Mrs. Semans says she looks forward to celebrating the grand opening with other longtime supporters of the museum - some of whose names will also be on the museum's walls. She remembers her friendship with Raymond D. Nasher - class of 1943 - the museum's namesake, back in the '60s and '70s, when they served as Duke Trustees together. They would get together with Nancy Hanks, George McGhee and others after board meetings and dream of bigger things for the arts at Duke, she says. "The arts in general were not strong at Duke," she says. "We just had to fuss, and, well, it was depressing."

That fussing paid off. The museum comes at the right time for Duke and Durham, in the perfect location, accessible to both university and town.

"It's just a happy circumstance," she says. "My big hope of course is that it will be an extraordinary university art museum, an informative and delightful place for the cultural life of Duke University and Durham."

"We are reeling from this tremendous loss," said Kimerly Rorschach, the Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans director of the Nasher Museum. "Without his vision, patience and generosity, the Nasher Museum would not exist. His continued help and patronage have been key to the museum's success. We lost him much too soon."

Nasher and his daughter, Nancy, a 1979 graduate of Duke Law School, took on the Nasher Museum project with a "ferocious love," Rorschach said. Between them, they logged at least 100 plane trips between Dallas and Durham during recent years. Nasher provided the largest gift, $7.5 million, toward the $24 million building. The Nasher Foundation subsequently donated another $2.5 million in honor of Nasher, its founder.

The museum opened in October 2005 with an exhibition of art from Nasher's collection. Since, Nasher had continued to support the museum as a member of its national board of advisors. He lent many works of sculpture to the museum, including the iconic Mark di Suvero sculpture "In the Bushes" on the museum's front lawn. Last month, he visited the museum to introduce Thomas Krens, Guggenheim Foundation director, who delivered the annual Semans Lecture.

The late Raymond D. Nasher greets visitors on the opening day of the Nasher Museum, on Oct. 2, 2005. Photo by Tian Qinzheng.

The late Raymond D. Nasher poses next to the Warhol portrait of his wife Patsy. The work was part of the inaugural exhibition, The Evolution of the Nasher Collection. Photo by Duke Photography.

"Ray Nasher was Duke's cultural hero," said Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, a longtime supporter of the Nasher Museum and great-granddaughter of Washington Duke, for whom Duke University is named. "He was a man of the people, insisting that the museum be placed close to the public highway so that the city of Durham would be involved. Now thanks to Ray, we shall celebrate constantly his extraordinary museum and cultural center at Duke. He has been my cherished friend for 50 years and I shall miss him every day."

"Ray Nasher's generosity and vision raised the arts to a new level at Duke," said Richard H. Brodhead, Duke University president. "Our Nasher Museum of Art, which Ray made possible, has established itself in just over one year as a major cultural force on campus and in Durham. What meant a lot to Ray was how much students have responded to the museum, since it was as a student himself that Ray thought of the idea that what Duke needed was a place to experience art. We are deeply indebted to him and in this time of loss are comforted by the knowledge that his legacy has a permanent place on the Duke campus and in the hearts of those who value the arts."

Nasher was chairman of The Nasher Foundation of Dallas and chairman of Comerica Bank-Texas. He and his late wife Patsy began collecting art nearly 50 years ago. They started out by building an important collection of pre-Columbian art; over time, it evolved into one of the most extensive and significant private collections of modern sculpture. In 2003, Nasher opened the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, designed by architect Renzo Piano, which houses pieces from their collection of more than 300 works. The Nasher collection contains seminal works by Auguste Rodin, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Dubuffet, Henry Moore, David Smith and Mark di Suvero. Nasher also established a sculpture garden in his name at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, which presents a rotating selection of sculptures from the Nasher collection.

The late Raymond D. Nasher greets visitors on the opening day of the Nasher Museum, Oct. 2, 2005. Photo by Tian Qinzheng.

Nasher was one of the first real estate developers in the United States to place sculpture and other art in commercial retail complexes. In 1965, when he opened his first retail shopping center in Dallas -- NorthPark Center -- he and his wife Patsy made a commitment to install art throughout the center. He designed a structure inside and out that met the needs of retailers and provided space to display large sculptures from their collection by such artists as Jonathan Borofsky, Mark di Suvero, Henry Moore, Beverly Pepper and George Segal. NorthPark Center and the nearby NorthPark National Bank (now Comerica Bank) -- another project of The Nasher Co. -- have won architectural and design awards and become models for other developers around the world. Nasher was a member of the national Business Committee for the Arts Inc. since 1987 and was appointed chairman in October 2002.

He also served in several governmental positions: chairman of the National Commission of Urban Development, 1964 to 1965; executive director of the White House Conference on International Cooperation, 1965; member of the President's Commission on Urban Housing (Kaiser Commission), 1967 to 1968; U.S. delegate to the General Assembly of the United Nations, 1967 to 1968; member of the U.S. Commission to UNESCO, 1962 to 1965; U.S. member of the German Cooperative Delegation, 1967; board director of the United Nations Association of the United States. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1995 and of the National Council of the United Nations Association of the United States. Nasher was appointed to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities by three U.S. presidents and most recently served as vice chairman.

He also played a leading role in the development and growth of many of the major arts organizations in Dallas. He founded the Dallas Business Committee for the Arts in 1988 and served as a board member of the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas Opera, the Dallas Symphony, the Dallas Theater Center, Ballet Dallas and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. From 1992 to 1995, Nasher served on the Texas Commission on the Arts, and from 1988 to 1992 he was the ambassador of cultural affairs for the City of Dallas.

Nasher was also a member of the National Council of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the International Council of the Tate Gallery in London, and served on the committees and councils of numerous leading museums, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including: the Linz Award, the Woodrow Wilson Award, the H. Neil Mallon Award of the World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas and the Dallas Business Hall of Fame Award.

Nasher is survived by three daughters and three grandchildren.

Click below to see his obituary in the Dallas Morning News:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/obituaries/ stories/031707dnmetnasherobit.1c83b9a6.html

Click below to read a feature story about Nasher that appeared in Duke Magazine in May/June 2003:
http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/050603/collector1.html

Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead visits with Nasher Museum Director Kimerly Rorschach, Nancy Nasher, Mary D.B.T. Semans, Thomas Krens and the late Raymond D. Nasher before the annual Semans Lecture at the Nasher Museum on Feb. 21, 2007. Photo by Chris Hildreth, Duke Photography.