WALTER P. PAEPCKE
Name: Walter Paepcke
Birn: 1896
Died: 1960
Walter Paepcke (1896-1960) was a U.S. industrialist and philanthropist prominent
in the middle-20th century.
A longtime executive of the Chicago-based Container Corporation of America,
Paepcke is best noted for his founding of the Aspen Institute and the Aspen
Skiing Company in the early 1950s, both of which helped transform the town of
Aspen, Colorado into an international resort destination and popularize the
sport of skiing in the United States.
In 1949 Paepcke made Aspen the site for a celebration of the 200th birthday of
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Albert Schweitzer, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Thornton
Wilder, and Artur Rubinstein all attended the celebration. The next year,
Paepcke created what is now the Aspen Institute.
Paepcke hired Bauhaus designer Herbert Bayer and brought him to Aspen to promote
the project through poster design and other design work; Paepcke was also the
patron of fellow Bauhaus figure László Moholy-Nagy by financing the re-birth of
the American New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1939.The New Bauhaus also had links to
the Armour Institute of Technology.
Name: Walter Paepcke
Birn: 1896
Died: 1960
Walter Paepcke (1896-1960) was a U.S. industrialist and philanthropist prominent
in the middle-20th century.
A longtime executive of the Chicago-based Container Corporation of America,
Paepcke is best noted for his founding of the Aspen Institute and the Aspen
Skiing Company in the early 1950s, both of which helped transform the town of
Aspen, Colorado into an international resort destination and popularize the
sport of skiing in the United States.
In 1949 Paepcke made Aspen the site for a celebration of the 200th birthday of
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Albert Schweitzer, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Thornton
Wilder, and Artur Rubinstein all attended the celebration. The next year,
Paepcke created what is now the Aspen Institute.
Paepcke hired Bauhaus designer Herbert Bayer and brought him to Aspen to promote
the project through poster design and other design work; Paepcke was also the
patron of fellow Bauhaus figure László Moholy-Nagy by financing the re-birth of
the American New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1939.The New Bauhaus also had links to
the Armour Institute of Technology.