Douglas Dillon

Douglas Dillon was a prime specimen of the old East Coast aristocracy which once ran America. He was a Wall Street financier who served in high positions in government under both parties, before devoting the latter stages of his life to overseeing various institutional pillars of the US establishment; among them, at various times, Harvard University, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Brookings Institution – and above all the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Wealth and position in America can be quickly attained and Dillon himself was only two generations removed from immigrant stock, his paternal grandfather Samuel Lapowski having arrived in Texas from Poland shortly after the Civil War. But, from that modest background, his father Clarence Dillon had made enough money to become a founder of Dillon, Read, one of the most prominent Wall Street investment houses. Douglas Dillon himself was a product of the élite Groton School and then Harvard, where he graduated summa cum laude before entering the family firm.

By then Dillon was a convinced Republican. Later he became a financial and organisational force behind the election of Dwight Eisenhower to the presidency in 1952. His reward was the embassy in Paris where, after a stumbling start, he emerged as a deft spokesman of Washington's policies at a time when US and European interests not infrequently clashed – not least over Suez.

It was moreover no handicap that his table would be graced by the wines of Château Haut-Brion, the first Bordeaux premier cru to be owned by an American. Dillon's father had bought it in 1935 and it remains in the family to this day. After four years in France, he returned to Washington to hold important posts in the State Department, as Under-Secretary for Economic Affairs and then, from 1959 to 1961, as Under-Secretary of State.

All of which made Dillon an unexpected choice for the government post for which he is best remembered: Treasury Secretary under the Democratic President John Kennedy (and later, for two years, under Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson). In fact, the appointment made eminent sense. The inexperienced Kennedy was largely an unknown quantity when he took office in January 1961, having won the election by a tiny margin. Dillon was perfect on two counts: he would symbolise Kennedy's intention to govern in a bipartisan manner, and would also serve as a reassuring bridge to Wall Street.

By common consent, he was a success, and until he left government in 1965 was the country's most influential economic official. Admittedly Dillon – like virtually every Treasury Secretary since – failed to cure America's balance of payments deficit, but he pushed through business tax cuts and trade liberalisation measures. He had a fine analytical mind, enabling him to detect building economic problems well ahead of the fact.

Though a lifelong Republican, he had no problem serving Democratic administrations: "I am a moderate Republican," Dillon declared in 1965, "I do not believe there are great differences between that kind of Republicanism and the objectives", of Kennedy and Johnson. Today, some 40 years on, such publicly expressed sentiments are rare.

Back in New York, Dillon devoted himself to the fine arts, another abiding passion. A notable collector of French 18th-century and Impressionist art, he had long been a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1970 he became President and in 1977 its chairman, until he stepped down in 1983. During that period, largely out of his own pocket, he built up the Met's notable collection of Chinese art. Until the end of his life, he helped guide its acquisitions policies. Indeed, during one of his last illnesses, Dillon was reading acquisitions documents in his hospital bed.

Rupert Cornwell