Chadds Ford icon helped found Brandywine River Museum, Brandywine Conservancy
George A. “Frolic” Weymouth
With passions ranging from the art world to preserving opening space, George A. “Frolic” Weymouth was one of the region’s great benefactors and leaders in preserving the natural beauty of Chester County.
Weymouth died Sunday, according to the Brandywine Conservancy — one of two area organizations (along with the Brandywine River Museum) that Weymouth was instrumental in founding.
Weymouth, an artist, an equestrian and community leader had deep ties to the Wyeth and duPont families.
Weymouth’s work in open space preservation started nearly 50 years ago, when, in 1967, he, Bill Pricket and Francis I. DuPont, bought 47 acres in Chadds Ford, creating the seed of what would become the Brandywine Conservancy, now one of the nation’s top land trusts.
Almost immediately after that, he played a major role in the preservation and purchase of Hoffman’s Mill, along the Brandywine. He then led a community campaign to convert the old mill into today’s Brandywine River Museum, which opened in 1971.
According to the Brandywine Conservancy, Weymouth was born in 1936 in Wilmington, Delaware, to George and Dulcinea (neé du Pont) Weymouth.
Quoting the obituary that appears on the Brandywine Conservancy Web site:
Frolic Weymouth grew up in Greenville, Delaware and spent the greater part of his life living in the Brandywine Valley. The nickname “Frolic,” given to him in childhood, perfectly embodied the joy with which he lived his life and his irrepressible sense of humor.
Encouraged by his artistic mother, Weymouth began painting as a child and continued at St. Mark’s School (class of ’54) and Yale University (class of ’58). As a teenager, he was introduced to Andrew Wyeth, who became an artistic mentor and lifelong friend. It was Wyeth and his brother-in-law, Peter Hurd, who would later suggest Weymouth experiment with tempera, and he went on to master the painstaking technique with Wyeth’s encouragement in the early 1950s.
Over a six-decade career as an artist Weymouth exhibited the landscapes, flower studies and portraits for which he is known—including friends and family as well as international notables such as Luciano Pavarotti and His Royal Highness Prince Philip—in numerous exhibitions including those at the Brandywine River Museum of Art. His paintings are in major private and museum collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Artist Jamie Wyeth remembers Weymouth as an enduring presence in his life.
“Frolic was a neighbor and family…..he and my father were dear friends. He was an immensely talented artist and achieved so much with his work in Chadds Ford, both with land conservation and with the museum. He was truly a force of nature that instilled his passion for art and the environment into all of his many friends, and they opened their hearts and their wallets to his causes. He was the best fund-raiser I ever met.’
For more than forty years, Frolic was a well-known figure in coaching circles and he exhibited his four matched bay Standard-bred horses and antique carriages annually in the country’s leading shows. One of only two Americans to be a member of The Coaching Club (England), he is the current president of the Four-in-Hand Club.
Weymouth coached regularly at the Devon Horse Show and permanently retired a trophy. He founded the Vicmead Coaching Club and is past Chairman of the Board of the Brandywine Polo Club. His annual carriaging weekend each May at The Big Bend, his home in Chadds Ford, drew participants from around the country and included a scenic drive to Winterthur, six miles away. This custom became part of the tradition of the Point-to-Point races, initiated in 1979.
Weymouth’s passionate interest in architectural preservation is perhaps best expressed by his own home, The Big Bend, a seventeenth-century Swedish trading post with an eighteenth-century addition. The structure had been long uninhabited until he purchased the property, and Weymouth lovingly restored it, adding extensive gardens.
George A. Weymouth is survived by his son, McCoy “Mac” duPont Weymouth and his wife Toni Toomey-Weymouth; their children, Sophie Tyler Brown and Misha Kai Toomey-Brown; his brother, Eugene E. Weymouth and sister, Patricia Weymouth Hobbs. He is also survived by Anna Brelsford McCoy, to whom he was married until 1979, and his companion, Carlton Cropper.
A small private funeral service will be held by invitation only. Friends and the public are invited to call at the Brandywine River Museum of Art to pay respects and see a tribute exhibition beginning Friday, April 29th. Cards for the family may be left in the care of the Museum.
In lieu of flowers, the family request that memorial contributions be made to the Frolic Weymouth Endowment Fund of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art.
