S. Cary Welch, Scholar and Wit, Dead at 80

Stuart Cary Welch,  a scholar of Islamic and Indian art, has died at age 80. From the NYT obituary:

At his death, Mr. Welch was curator emeritus of Islamic and Later Indian art at the Harvard Art Museum. From 1979 to 1987, he was also special consultant in charge of the department of Islamic art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Mr. Welch’s accomplishments were all the more noteworthy because  he was entirely self-taught.

Mr. Welch was a friend of my father-in-law since they were at St. Paul's School together and thus a constant in my married life. He'd been everywhere, knew everyone, was a guest of maharajahs and sheikhs and diplomats. Never stuffy, sometimes snobby, he was an endless source of good humor,  silly jokes and a keen observer of all the little incongruities that abound in daily life. My children vividly recall his lively description of a unlikely visit to an IHOP, told in his own accent-- a sort of New England prep-school drawl that placed a strong emphasis on initial syllables only to die away by the end of the word:

"The-e-ey call it the INTernational HOuse of Pancakes and the menu PROMised BELGian waffles, but there was NOTHing BELGian about those waffles as far as I could tell!"

Oh, he was just delightful--interested in everything and able to convey that delight to everyone around him. He and Mrs. Welch were great friends with the film making team of Ishmail Merchant and James Ivory, and appear in a party scene in Le Divorce, looking entirely like themselves.

Everyone who knew him will miss him dreadfully. A memorial at Harvard is planned, and donations may be made to the Harvard Art Museum.