Noted Arts Expert Benjamin Rowland Dies at Age of 67

Benjamin Rowland Jr. '28, Gleason professor of Fine Arts and an international authority on the art of ancient India, medieval Italy and modern America, died Tuesday at Mt. Auburn Hospital after along illness. He was 67 years old.

A teacher at Harvard since 1928. Rowland became professor of Fine Arts-in 1950 and the first Gleason Professor in 1960. Rowland authored a number of books, including Art and Architecture of India and Art in East and West.

Ernst Kitzinger, Porter University Professor and a close friend and colleagues of Rowland, yesterday called him "a fundamentally upright and decent person with an entertaining deadpan sense of humour." He added that Rowland was "a devoted teacher," who, because of his diverse areas of expertise, is "totally irreplaceable to the department."

Rowland attended St. Paul's School and Harvard where he received an S.B. degree in 1928 and a Ph.D. in 1930.

Noted Collector

Rowland was himself a painter as well as a scholar. His water colors are in the permanent collections of the Fogg Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the City-Art Museum of Saint Louis.

He was also a noted art collector. Last year he gave his collection of oriental art to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The Fogg Museum dedicated last spring's exhibit on "American Art at Harvard" to Rowland who was cited in the exhibit catalog as "the man personally responsible for the advanced study of the visual arts at Harvard."

Rowland is survived by his wife Lucy, five children, and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held tomorrow at 3 p.m. at the Monastery of St. Mary and St. John in Cambridge.