PORTLAND — Hugh J. Gourley III, born in 1931, died July 25, at the Maine Medical Center. Mr. Gourley, 81, was a resident of Falmouth House in Falmouth and was the retired director of the Colby College Art Museum of Waterville.

He was responsible for building much of the outstanding collection at Colby over 36 years. In 2010, he won the first Jette Award for Leadership in the Arts. Mr. Gourley said at the awards function,”The museum has grown over the years through the vision and generosity of dedicated friends. I look forward to seeing the new glass wing of three stories designed by Frederich Fisher of Los Angeles in the future.”

Mr. Gourley was responsible for bringing into the museum the John Marin Collection, the Paul Schupf wing, the Alex Katz Collection and the Lunder collection, the largest collection ever brought into the museum.

A quiet, gentleman with a great sense of humor and a love of literature and films, he had great courage in supporting individual artists over the years and collecting them for the Colby College Museum of Art. Some important artists that he was responsible for including in the collection were Richard Serra, Lois Dodd, Louise Nevelson, Neil Welliver, Robert Indiana, Rackstraw Downs, William and Marguerite Zorach, Dahlov Ipcar, Bernard Langlais and Abby Shahn, just to name a few of the thousands of works collected over his tenure of 36 years.

Known for his modesty, refined taste and open mind in selecting new art for the Colby Museum of Art, Mr. Gourley is highly respected in the art world both in Maine and New York. Mr. Gourley is known for his exciting exhibits, creatively hung and introduced to the public in Maine extremely important contemporary artists now known across the nation.