Vermont Public
Radio Commentary
by Chester H. Liebs
© 1999 by
Chester H. Liebs, Aired 8/24/00
Made possible by: The Alma Gibbs Donchian
Foundation and the Preservation Trust of Vermont
A Vermont Living
Treasure
Treasure is more than a pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow. Some of the most valuable treasures are people, special
people who enrich the world around them. They are living
treasures. And since they are living we can thank them. Some
receive Nobel prizes. Others MacArthur genius grants. The
Japanese even designate living treasures as important cultural
assets.
Today I would I would like to nominate an extraordinary
individual as a Vermont living treasure. But first a little
background, starting with Napoleon. That's right. Napoleon. For
it was Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte who granted a young general,
Gaspard Gourgaud, a Barony and a legacy. A century later, in
1917, Gaspard's grandson, the Baron Gourgaud, married Eva
Gebhard, an intelligent New York socialite who was living in
Paris. During summers on the Isle of Aix, the couple became
interested in preserving the building where Napoleon spent his
last days in France. This interest snowballed into a passion for
conserving the architectural and natural beauty of the area.
Enter a young lawyer, Robert Sincerbeaux. Fresh out of the
U.S. Navy after World War Two, he was specializing in trusts and
estates in his father's law firm. Fluent in French, he was
assigned to help Eva settle her affairs when she returned to New
York after the Baron's death in 1944. Sincerbeaux and the
Baroness hit it off and decided to establish the Eva
Gebhard-Gourgaud Foundation in 1947 to help preserve cultural
sites and natural beauty here and in France.
A decade after Eva's death in 1959, Sincerbeaux, his wife
Betty, and the Foundation moved to Woodstock. The timing could
not have been better. Congress had just passed sweeping
environmental and preservation legislation, and citizen response
was springing up everywhere. Before long, another client, Cecil
Howard, entrusted Bob with an additional legacy for the same
purpose, and Bob realized that special moment had arrived when
small matching-grants to encourage natural and cultural
conservation would be most effective.
I remember being filled with trepidation when I trekked to
Woodstock in the early 1970s for a first-ever meeting with a
foundation president. Bob's welcoming voice soon melted my
anxiety. He approved my request to help fund a film that
encouraged reusing old industrial buildings. Later he helped me
develop the UVM Historic Preservation Program. Scores of others
Vermonters made the same pilgrimage to Woodstock to request
Bob's help.
From 1959 to 1991 (when the final funds were dispersed) Eva
and Cecil's largess helped to restore hundreds of historic
places from the great barns at Shelburne Farms, the Flynn
Theater, and the Windsor House, to churches, libraries, and town
halls from Richmond to Bennington. If you see a beautiful
building in Vermont, chances are Bob, Eva and Cecil had a hand
in preserving it.
Bob also provided early support for environmental and
cultural organizations, including the Preservation Trust, the
Vermont Land Trust, and VPR.
Today some gift givers want their name on everything they
fund, from ballparks to marathons; Bob gave out grants the old
fashioned way, quietly, understatedly, and with no strings
attached. Fortunately for Vermont, other Foundations, such as
the Freeman Foundation, have generously picked up where Eva and
Cecil and Bob left off.
Thank you, Robert A. Sincerbeaux for all that you have done
and for the example you have set. I hereby proclaim you a
Vermont treasure for now and for always.
Credit: Author and landscape historian Chester Liebs is
former Vermont Supervisor of Historic Sites and UVM Professor
Emeritus of History and Historic Preservation.
