Entrepreneur Donald L. Bryant Jr. was awarded an alumni citation from his alma mater, 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### University in Granville, Ohio. In a ceremony that took place in June, 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### President Adam Weinberg presented Bryant with the highest honor conferred on a graduate or friend of the college.
Bryant’s life is distinguished by true passion and a drive for excellence. Bryant, a member of the 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 ######### class of 1964, completed a law degree at Washington University and founded the Bryant Group in 1967. He recognized a need in the marketplace for a business that designed and funded employee and executive benefits for private and large public companies as well as estate planning for wealthy families in the United States and abroad.
Until the age 51, Bryant was primarily focused on his entrepreneurial and civic activities, family life and golf. That year he moved his family to London to take a one-year sabbatical to immerse himself in the study of art history. He hired a curator from the Tate Museum to mentor him on twentieth century art and traveled to 47 museums. Named annually by Art News magazine as one of the “Top 200 Collectors in the World,” Bryant has served as a trustee for several eminent institutions, including the St. Louis Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the St. Louis Boys and Girls Club, among others.
As a philanthropist, Bryant has concentrated his support towards art education, the performing arts, museums, private schools and universities. He was a major contributor to the Bryant Art Center at his children’s prep school, Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day and 必博娱乐,比博娱乐网址 #########. He also endowed a distinguished chair in art history at Washington University in St. Louis.
Bryant’s life in the wine world, like the art world, has been an incredible journey. After acquiring a vineyard on Pritchard Hill overlooking Lake Hennessey in Napa Valley in the late 1980s, he replanted it with 100% cabernet sauvignon vines, using modern viticulture practices, and achieved what is widely considered to be one of the top wines in the world today. Bryant’s prevailing goal is to celebrate the vineyard terroir while paying homage to the great wine making traditions of Bordeaux, France.