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After a courageous struggle with multiple myeloma, Oliver V. Hirsch died the afternoon of January 15 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. Please share your thoughts here. We know that Oliver left a very special mark on those he knew and worked with and we appreciate all the condolences that have come in. Oliver is survived by his wife Márcia Gomide, two daughters, Jennifer and Annie Hirsch, two brothers, Christopher Hirsch and Gregory Twain, two grandchildren, George Oliver and Chloe Zenobia Davis, as well as his ex-wife and friend, Joan Hirsch, nieces, nephews and a multitude of beloved friends. The family asks that donations in Oliver's name be sent to the Oliver V. Hirsch Youth and Museum Studies Fund at Harbor Conservatory, 1 East 104th Street, Suite 577, New York, NY 10029. He was Exhibitions Director of the Raíces Latin Music Museum, a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate, Professor of Exhibition Design in the Graduate Program at New York University and President of Hirsch and Associates Fine Arts Services, Inc. He was active as a National Board Member of the National Association of Museum Exhibitions, Standing Committee for Exhibitions, American Association of Museums. In 1998, after many years in the framing and exhibition design business, including several years as Exhibitions Manager at El Museo del Barrio, Oliver founded his company, Hirsch & Associates Fine Art Services, Inc., providing services to internationally established artists and galleries, local and national museums, and private collectors. In 2001 a student from his Exhibition Design course at NYU, Janelle Beaty, began an internship at Hirsch & Associates, and within the year, she had accepted work as a full-time employee. As Oliver's responsibilities and duties were expanded at Raíces, Janelle assumed a managerial role within the company and took over increasing amounts of daily business duties, including project management and design work. It was Oliver's desire that the company continue business after his death. Along with his wife Márcia, Janelle and the staff at Hirsch & Associates will carry on Oliver's legacy of elegant and archival design and fabrication. Many don't know the full expanse of Oliver's life and we wanted to share with you his history. Born in war torn France in 1946 of a French mother and expatriot American father, Oliver was raised in Bethesda, MD, graduating from Walter Johnson High School in 1964. An Air Force officer during the Vietnam War, Oliver made international headlines when he and eight fellow soldiers across all four services, the so-called "Nine for Peace," went AWOL as a form of protest over the increasing escalation of violence in Vietnam. He was prominently featured in the recent award-winning documentary Sir! No Sir!, that highlights the war resistance efforts that burgeoned within the armed forces as the war dragged on. After being thrown out of the military stockade with a bad discharge in1968, Oliver and his first wife, Joan Hirsch, helped establish GI Help, a San Francisco-based service to assist soldiers resisting deployment to Vietnam. Hoping to foment the rebelliousness of the 60s among working people, he later took revolutionary politics to the mills of the Pacific Northwest and to the coal mines of West Virginia, where he worked as a miner for five years during the wildcat strike movement of the 1970s. Oliver remained politically engaged to the end of his life, including through a range of artistic work from singing and songwriting to painting. His band, Sturm & Twang, played what he called "seditious country rock" in venues all around New York from the late 80s to mid 90s. Regarding his band, he wrote, "The music I have written is an amalgam of eclectic sources from tango to Norteño to rock to ska, and my lyrics express the joys and outrages of a political soul with an ear for rhyme." He joined the large demonstrations in the run up to the hugely
unpopular Iraq war. Regarding his role during the Vietnam War, as
in life itself, he always said he was "proud and unrepentant." From
Vietnam War resister to coalminer, musician, art professional and
youth mentor, he spent his life fulfilling his intense curiosity
and reinventing himself at every opportunity achieving virtuosity
no matter the endeavor. |
