Photography and philanthropy share a long history at Cornell, including first president A.D. White’s donation of architectural photographs in the late 1800s. This year, new gifts boost the study and appreciation of photography at Cornell through the establishment of a curatorship of photography for rare and distinctive collections (RAD) at Cornell University Library as well as a teaching gallery and photography fund at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.
Through her gifts, retired banking executive Nancy Sukenik named the curatorship, teaching gallery and photography fund in honor of her husband of 40 years, Richard Sukenik ’59, an avid photographer who died in 2014 and was a controller for chemical company W.R. Grace.
Since her husband’s death, Nancy Sukenik had been planning to make gifts to Cornell, and she was encouraged by his close friend Steve Segal ’59 to support photography in recognition of Richard’s love for the art form.
