Chester Higgins, Jr.’s New York Times portrait of Thomas N. Armstrong III with a model of Michael Graves’ design for a Whitney Museum expansion in 1985
Fifty years ago, as a young Manhattan lad, I grew up across the hall from Tom Armstrong, the Whitmeister who died yesterday, and the adman and art collector Dave McCall, who, with his third wife Penny, died on a peace mission to Bosnia for President Clinton 12 years ago. The winter snows were heavy in on Lexington Avenue in the early 1960s and, on many days, Mr. Armstrong and Mr. McCall would give me a boost on their shoulders over the snowdrifts to the bus for school.
