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PrintCreating a legacy
Whatever Lynn Friess tackles takes wings under her diligent direction
Photo by Carrie Patterson
After living in the West for nearly two decades, Lynn Friess of Jackson has an innate sense of this place, along with an appreciation for all creatures that inhabit it. While writers and painters translate their love of landscape and living things to creating works of literature and visual art, she has chosen an equally permanent path: High-profile leadership, capably executed, is Lynn’s stock in trade.
Her many accomplishments interweave a finely honed curiosity and solid financial acumen with a true desire to serve people in ways that matter—and others benefit greatly from her balancing act of equal parts dedication to culture and down-to-earth practicality.
For nearly a decade, Lynn has been active on the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of Wildlife Art, because, as she sees it, “Western art and the West go hand in hand.
“I simply fell in love with the museum and Western art,” she says. “It is truly a crown jewel for all of the West. There’s no other museum like this.”
During her years on the NMWA’s Board of Trustees, two of them as chairman, Lynn assisted in hiring a new CEO/President and achieved a balanced budget for the museum. Her most significant achievement, however, was helping to spearhead a financial drive with just one purpose—moving the museum fully into the black.
“Retiring the museum’s debt was the greatest gift to me as the incoming president and CEO,” says James C. McNutt, who has held that position since 2007. “Lynn and (fellow board member) Tony Green hatched and led the effort. It was a huge step forward.”
Lynn doesn’t hesitate to jump into a project. This summer, Western Lullaby, her first children’s book, was released. Based on a song she wrote for her first granddaughter, the book features artwork by award-winning illustrator Barbara Leonard Gibson and a CD of the lullaby performed by Marilee Gordon. And it includes a “Code of the West for Li’l Pokes.”
“This is something a parent can talk about with a child. Each point can start a conversation,” Lynn says. “I would hate to cut out the Western attitude from our country. It’s all about self-reliance, and trying to do the best you can.”
She is also developing a series of kids’ titles to benefit the NMWA, illustrated by John Potter. The stories center on a chipmunk named Carl who loves to read, is always asking questions, and, in the first book, learns to be a museum docent. It’s scheduled for release during the Fall Arts Festival. Lynn’s vision includes a line of stuffed animals to market alongside the books.
“I’ve always loved art,” she says, noting that her family lived down the road from painter Jamie Wyeth. And her life reflects that.
Lynn grew up in Scottsville, New York, a town of 4,000 residents near Rochester. The oldest of three children, she often came to this area as a youngster with her family.
“We camped throughout the West, and that was when camping was camping,” Lynn recounts, with her signature smile. One vivid memory is of being chased by a mother bear in Yellowstone, perhaps the beginning of her love affair with all things—and even animals—of the West.
Lynn and her husband Foster met at the University of Wisconsin in Madison; he was the president of his fraternity, while she was president of her sorority. They married in 1962, raising two sons and two daughters.
Thirty years later, they came to Jackson, seeking a new home for Friess Associates, the highly successful investment company they started in 1973 in Wilmington, Delaware. They’d lived on the East Coast for twenty-eight years, where she was, no surprise, involved in everything from the Junior League and the symphony, to volunteer work with families with deaf children and with the poor. She was eventually recognized as one of the six most influential women in Wilmington.
“As our firm grew, we were looking for someplace to start a new office,” Lynn explains. Wyoming was a possibility, given its tax-friendly attitude to business; they first visited Cody in January of 1992, but by that June had decided Jackson was the place for their office. Within a couple of weeks, they had bought land, and found the perfect spot to build at the base of Snow King.
Examples of the couple’s stunning fine-art collection adorn the walls, too many to document: here is one by Wyoming painter Tucker Smith, there a John Clymer (who studied under N.C. Wyeth, Lynn notes). Although they sold their business ten years ago, this lovely space now serves as offices for the The Friess Family Foundation, the main philanthropic entity supported by Foster and Lynn.
“Jackson is home,” Lynn says. “We are really blessed living here, in the Rocky Mountains and in the West.” They have several residences around the country, including the Mariposa Ranch near Cody. The ranch has also given its name to Lynn’s new publishing company.
It didn’t take long for Lynn to be heavily involved here. In 1998, she was one of the first of two women to serve on the Wyoming Business Council, an initiative intended to attract new businesses to the Cowboy State. She served as co-chair with Governor Jim Geringer the last two years of her term.
In 2001, she became a NMWA trustee and at the end of this summer, completed her third (and final) three-year term. Her contributions soar above what a typical board member might do. “Lynn in a nutshell—she has an idea and she manifests it,” says Ponteir Sackrey, NMWA’s director of development and marketing.
Lynn was the driving force behind the recently inaugurated Bull-Bransom Award, an honor to be given annually by the National Museum of Wildlife Art to recognize excellence in children’s book illustration with a wildlife and nature focus. It is named for Charles Livingston Bull and Paul Bransom, two artists well represented in the museum’s collection. The first award winner, Jerry Pinkney, was announced July 8; he won for his 2009 picture book The Lion and the Mouse (Little Brown), which won the Caldecott Medal earlier this year.
Lynn is incredibly modest about her abilities, as illustrated by this: “All along the way there have been marvelous people who have said, ‘What can I do? How can I help?’ Maybe I was the impetus for something, but there were always others following to provide assistance.”
What would be a natural next step? After decades of collecting art, years of service to the NMWA, and attending such prestigious openings as the Masters of the West show at the Autrey National Center of the American West in Los Angeles, another noteworthy opportunity came her way. In 2009, Lynn was appointed to the board of directors for the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum (formerly known as the Cowboy Hall of Fame) in Oklahoma City.
“The upshot of it was, they asked me, ‘Would you like to do this?’”
She currently serves on the Prix de West collections committee and is a founding member of the Annie Oakley Society, a group of six (including former Oklahoma First Lady Cathy Keating) who intend to create an award named in honor of the well-known sharpshooter.
“We hope to honor an outstanding woman of the West each year during Western Heritage Week,” Lynn says. “No bad word was ever said about Annie Oakley. She is a wonderful role model.”
The same is true about Lynn, particularly in regard to her abilities as a fundraiser, Sackrey says, and her enthusiastic dedication, adds McNutt.
“I always called her the ‘energy chairman’ because she’s such a live wire. Her effort is really phenomenal, and her contribution is above and beyond anything monetary.”
Lynn’s tireless philanthropic spirit comes from a deep sense of commitment to make the world a better place.
“Foster and I, we both come from humble origins,” she says. “With that success comes a sense of responsibility.”
The couple has carried their care throughout the world; one of their most recent efforts is supporting “Chances for Children,” to bring clean water to Haiti following the January earthquake. Their humanitarian work has included giving aid to Sri Lankan tsunami victims and helping establish a YMCA in inner-city Phoenix, among many other examples.
As for the future, this grandmother of ten hopes to live a long, long life (one of her aunts died at 99, she says). “When I’m elderly I might even take up painting like Grandma Moses did. I want to keep learning.”
