Alfred C. Glassell Jr., who died last week in Houston at the age of 95, lived a long, productive and colorful life, a life of superlatives. But it was also a life of surprising nuances and potential contradictions.

He assembled the greatest collection of African gold on Earth, but it wasn't the monetary value of gold that fascinated him. He collected the precious metal "because gold had an intrinsic value, a spiritual meaning in early cultures," said his good friend and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston curator Frances Marzio. "It was used to teach moral lessons." And he gave most of it away, to the MFAH.

He was an avid sports fisherman, achieving fame when in 1953 he reeled in the biggest marlin ever caught (at 1,560 pounds still a world record). But his interest in all things oceanic went much further: He was an ardent advocate of marine biology research and used his vessel the Argosy for scientific expeditions around the globe.

"He was very dedicated to science," remembered Norman Kinsey, who grew up near Glassell in Shreveport and served on the board of Transcontinental Gas Pipeline (later to become Transco) with him. "He used his expertise and his treasure to further these things. One time, Yale wanted some special sea snakes, so he sent his vessel to the Indian Ocean to look for them."

Glassell's philanthropy was legendary. But there also, he gave much more than funding to the causes he believed in. He became very active with the Smithsonian Institution, and was an honorary member of the national board. He contributed to its Museum of African Art, and its Museum of Natural Science houses a model of his monster marlin.

But the cornerstone of his philanthropy and involvement was Houston's MFA, where he was chairman emeritus and life trustee. He was a driving force in the founding of the Glassell School of Art, the museum's teaching wing, and in 1997 he donated his collection of African gold to the museum.

Glassell's old friend and colleague Jack Bowen, a former CEO and board chairman of Transco Energy Company, told the Chronicle, "He was a man of many interests, but to him the welfare of the museum was paramount, especially the financial leadership he gave. I think he had more to do with the success of the museum than anybody else but [MFAH Director] Peter Marzio.

"He was a fine man," said Bowen. "He ended up in Houston, and Houston was much the better for it."

Alfred Glassell (1913)