Robert Henning, gifted with abundant intelligence, gentle wit, and refined sensibility, died on June 7, 2019, at Serenity House, from complications following surgery. He led a fascinating, highly accomplished life, with his love of art, music, and books as guiding lights. Santa Barbara knew him best as the chief curator of the city’s Museum of Art (SBMA) for more than two decades before he retired in 2003.
Robert’s education included undergraduate studies at Kenyon College and Ohio State University; graduate studies at University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Master of Arts and was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship; a second MA degree from Case Western Reserve, where he completed an internship at the Cleveland Museum of Art; and lastly, at the Getty Museum Management Institute.
His long career as an art historian, curator, and museum administrator began with his appointment as gallery manager/curator at Ohio State University in 1969 and then as curator of the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester in 1972, followed by the curatorship at the Springfield Museum of Fine Art/George Walter Vincent Museum in Massachusetts in 1979.