Biographical Note
Benjamin Franklin Garber was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 1927, the son of Sallie Blackmore and Claude Garber. As a child, he studied dance, violin, and art. His first art teacher, Mary Caples Morrison, introduced him to her art circle. In high school, he assisted the nationally known sculptor and painter William H. Calfee with painting one of the large-scale public murals that can still be viewed at the original Harrisonburg Post Office. Garber was drafted by the U.S. Army and stationed in Los Alamos, New Mexico. During one of his leaves, he flew to New York City to see Martha Graham perform in Night Journey, Punch and the Judy, and El Penitente. When his military service ended, he enrolled in the Graham Center's company classes. While studying dance with Graham, he also studied painting and drawing with Amédée Ozenfant and Hans Hofmann, enrolled in Louis Horst’s choreography class, and attended Eugene O’Neill’s poetry and literature classes at The New School. He danced in Merce Cunningham’s Les Noces, conducted by Leonard Bernstein for the 1952 opening of the Brandeis University Ullman Amphitheater. Soon after, Garber ended his career as a dancer to concentrate on his visual talents.
At the request of Syrie Maugham (Mrs. Somerset Maugham), Garber entered the interior decoration profession with William Cameron Kennedy, who became his lifelong partner. After Maugham’s death, they formed William C. Kennedy Associates and carried out extensive work for Lila Acheson Wallace (Mrs. DeWitt Wallace) and the Reader’s Digest organization. Garber and Kennedy designed offices for their company worldwide, assembled art works for Wallace’s home High Winds, and supervised the historic 1974 renovation of Boscobel, the 18th-century estate on the Hudson River, which was one of Mrs. Wallace’s projects.
In the early 1960s, Garber rekindled his relationship with Martha Graham and offered his assistance in matters regarding her personal health and the company's finances. Garber introduced Graham to Lila Acheson Wallace during this time period. Wallace became an important source of financial support for Graham and even assisted with the purchase of the Graham studio at 316 East 63rd Street.
Martha Graham was a guest in the lavish homes of Garber and Kennedy, most of which were featured in Architectural Digest or Town and Country Magazine. This included the homes in Manhattan, New York, St. Martin, Huntington Palisades, California, where Graham stayed before and after her facelift; and Cross River, located in Westchester County, New York, and built by Garber and Kennedy as a French chateau. Cross River was the home where Graham convalesced for almost a year in the early 1970s.
When Garber and Kennedy moved to St. Martin in 1974, the relationship with Graham began to deteriorate. At this time, Ron Protas was directing the activities of the Graham company and was Graham’s personal assistant. During the next few years, her telephone number frequently changed and notes from Garber to Graham were believed by Garber to be intercepted. By 1979, the relationship between Graham and Garber had ended in animosity, and--although Garber often spoke of Graham and continued to hold deep personal feelings for her--he never saw her again. In the mid-1990s, Garber was interested in revisiting the past. From 1995-1998, Garber’s childhood friend and eventual executor of his estate, Martha Merz, conducted the interviews with Garber, which provide anecdotes of his time with Graham and the feelings he still felt about their relationship, even after her death.
Benjamin Garber died in a Miami hospital at the age of seventy-four on September 26, 2001.