ROCKPORT – Rupert Getzen, 74, a highly regarded and gifted sculptor, died Wednesday, July 22, 2009, from complications of bone marrow cancer. He suffered a heart attack after walking his beloved toy poodle, Clicquot, on the harbor boardwalk in Rockland. Rupert Guy Getzen was born Oct. 4, 1934, in Louisville, Ky., the only child of Mildred Ammons and Rupert Guy Getzen. He graduated from Culver Military Academy with honors, attended Princeton University, and graduated from the University of Colorado. In the late ’80s, after 25 years with IBM, Mr. Getzen took early retirement in order to pursue a second career as an artist. He began by studying photography and painting at the Maine Photographic Workshop, Rockport, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He eventually found his m?tier in sculpting and it was there he made his mark, creating a wide and varied body of pieces cast in bronze. His work has been featured in many prominent galleries and museums worldwide, and is held in private collections in the U.S., Mexico, England and Italy. Mr. Getzen was an avid collector of antiques, art and art books. He had an eye for beautiful and unusual objects and enjoyed being surrounded by other people’s art almost as much as he enjoyed creating his own. He read voraciously and intelligently with a wide range of interests and infallible taste. His special niche was contemporary fiction, American, British and international, and he was considered by those who knew him to be an expert in that genre. In 1983 he married Constance Gibbons of Bangor and after living in Boston and North Conway, N.H., they moved to Rockport in 1996. They spent winters in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, where Mr. Getzen was a prominent member of the artistic community. In addition to his wife, Constance Gibbons, Mr. Getzen is survived by four daughters from his previous marriage to Dolores Pedersen, and their husbands and six grandchildren. They are Greer Getzen and Barry Pugatch of Marlborough, Mass., and their children, Ana and Maxwell Pugatch; Holly Sullivan and Dr. John Sullivan of Marblehead, Mass., and their children, John and Kiersten; Grace Getzen and Andy Henry of Simi Valley, Calif., and their children, Maxx and Cathrine; and Dr. Summer Getzen and Dr. Geoffrey Capraro of Southborough, Mass., and their son, Oscar. Mr. Getzen’s son, Rupert Guy Getzen III, predeceased him. A memorial service was held Monday, July 27, at Vesper Hill Chapel, Rockport. Donations in his memory may be made to Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, attention: Contribution Services, 10 Brookline Place, West Brookline, MA 02445 or Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation – Cancer Center, 22 White St., Rockland, ME 04841. Arrangements with Long Funeral Home, 9 Mountain St., Camden.
RUPERT GETZEN
