Robert David Lion Gardiner

Robert David Lion Gardiner (February 25, 1911 – August 23, 2004), was the last heir to Gardiner's Island to have the surname "Gardiner". (His sister's daughter, Alexandra Creel Goelet was co-owner, until his death, and is now sole owner.) He was the 16th Lord of the Manor.[1]

Robert David Lion Gardiner
Born(1911-05-25)May 25, 1911
New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 23, 2004(2004-08-23) (aged 93)
East Hampton, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationSt. George's School
Alma materColumbia University
New York University School of Law
Known forHeir to Gardiner's Island
Spouse(s)
Eunice Bailey Oakes
​
​
(m. 1961; his death 2004)​
RelativesAlexandra Creel Goelet (niece)

Early life

Gardiner was born in New York on February 25, 1911. Gardiner was raised by a single mother, and continued to live with her, in Manhattan.

He attended St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island. He attended Columbia University and graduated in 1934. He then attended New York University School of Law.

Career

He served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy in the South West Pacific theatre during World War II.[1] Gardiner worked on Wall Street, for the Empire Trust Company and owned a 42-acre shopping center in Islip, New York.[1]

Gardiner family properties

He and his sister Alexandra Gardiner Creel inherited Gardiner's Island from their aunt, Sarah Diodati Gardiner, when she died in 1953.[1] Gardiner had long-running disputes with his sister, and her daughter, Alexandra Creel Goelet.[2] Goelet and her husband were conservationists, while Gardiner was an enthusiastic hunter.

From 1953, when Gardiner and his sister inherited the Island, until 1977, the Island's operating costs had been covered by a trust set up by the aunt from whom they inherited the property.[2] Due to their disputes, Gardiner refused to contribute to the taxes and other costs of maintaining the property–which, at that time, were more than $1 million per year. He didn't contribute for over a decade. They, in turn, went to court to bar him from visiting the property.

In 1971 Representative Otis Pike proposed a bill to expropriate Gardiners Island, to turn it into a Federal National Monument.[3] Gardiner complained that the proposal to expropriate his family's property was unfair, when the Rockefeller family had been allowed to continue to own their Pocantico Hills estate.

Gardiner also inherited Sagtikos Manor, a 10-acre heritage property on Long Island.[4] Gardiner inherited the property, which had been in his family since the 18th century, in the 1930s.[5] Gardiner and his wife Eunice used the property as their primary residence for several years, early in their marriage.[6] In 1963, when the Sagtikos Manor Historical Society was founded, the Gardiners stopped using it as their primary residence, let the Historical Society use part of the structure, but insisted the Historical Society reserve a suite for him. The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970s. In 1986 Gardiner transferred ownership of the property to the nonprofit Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.

Today, Sagtikos Manor stands as a small museum rich in historical value to the American Revolution and its era onward.[4]

Personal life

In 1961, Gardiner was married to Eunice Bailey Oakes (1928–2011), a former British model, at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Eunice, who was previously married to William Pitt Oakes (a son of Sir Harry Oakes, William died of an overdose at 28),[7] was significantly younger than he was, but the couple's marriage yielded no children.[1][8][9] In the 1980s Gardiner tried to adopt a distant relative, so he would have an heir who could continue inherit his share of the Island, and keep it in the Gardiner name.[1] But those efforts failed, since he was looking for a relative who was already wealthy, who, nevertheless, would agree to his conditions as to how Gardiner's Island was managed, after his death.[2]

His niece, Alexandra Creel Goelet, had already inherited his sister's half of the estate, and inherited Gardiner's half upon his death through court. Gardiner and his niece were estranged. They traversed arduous litigation toward one another over the Gardiner Estate's fund and ownership of equity such as Gardiner's Island and Sagtikos Manor which had originally meant to be preserved for the family's history.[10][11][12]

The long running dispute between Gardiner and his niece formed part of the background to Chrystle Fiedler's 2015 mystery novel Garden of Death.[13]

References
  1. Robert F. Worth (August 24, 2004). "Robert D.L. Gardiner, 93, Lord of His Own Island, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
  2. Dinitia Smith (1989-06-05). "The blue-blood feud over Gardiner's Island: Wasp's Nest". New York Magazine. pp. 30–39. Retrieved 2019-10-12.
  3. Richard L. Madden (1971-09-11). "Gardiner Fights Move To Make Island Public". The New York Times. Washington DC. p. A3. Retrieved 2020-09-18. I certainly feel that as long as the Rockefellers can have Pocantico Hills we lowly Gardiners in the fourth century of ownership should be allowed to have our estate.
  4. Ellsworth S. Grant (October 1975). "To The Manor Born | AMERICAN HERITAGE". American Heritage magazine. 26 (6). Retrieved 2019-04-12.
  5. Carole Paquette (2002-12-22). "In the Region/Long Island; A Bay Shore Manor to Open a Window on History". The New York Times. p. Section 11, Page 7. Retrieved 2019-10-15. Sagtikos Manor had been in the Gardiner family for 230 years, and since 1986 it had been held by the nonprofit Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since the mid-1970s.
  6. Spencer Rumsey (2014-10-03). "Sagtikos Manor Holds Three Centuries of Long Island History Under One Roof". Long Island Press. Retrieved 2019-10-15. 'He was just an incredible character and full of himself—and he got fuller and fuller as time went by!' says Failey, who first met Gardiner 40 years ago when he began researching American antiques.
  7. "Nancy Oakes von Hoyningen-Huene". The Times. 21 January 2005. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  8. Lindsay Pollock (2005-01-13). "Tea for Two, Three, or $5 Million". New York Sun. Retrieved 2016-06-27. Gardiner's Island is now the great remaining legacy, and it has passed into the sole ownership of Robert Gardiner's niece, Alexandra Creel Goelet. She's married to the scion of another New York moneyed family and has promised to preserve the island.
  9. "New York's Gardiners Island: Still in the Family After Almost 400 Years". Slate magazine. 2016-02-02. Archived from the original on 2016-04-26. Retrieved 2016-06-27. For roughly 30 years, Bob was embroiled in highly-publicized fights over the ownership and development of the island with his niece, Alexandra Creel Goelet, who eventually inherited her mother’s interest when she died.
  10. "Sagtikos History". sagtikosmanor.org. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
  11. John T. Brooks, Jena L. Levin (2015-08-25). "No Standing to Enforce a Charitable Trust". Wealth Management. Archived from the original on 2015-11-10. Retrieved 2016-06-27.
  12. Stephen J. Kotz (2000-09-07). "Gardiner Feud Comes Home". East Hampton Star. Archived from the original on 2016-06-27. In more recent years, the island has primarily made headlines for its strict no-trespassing policy and a contentious legal battle between two possible heirs. As of now, the island is unilaterally owned by Gardiner-descendant Alexandra Creel Goelet, who intends, predictably, to keep it in the family.
  13. Chrystle Fiedler (2015-03-24). "Garden of Death: A Natural Remedies Mystery". Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781476748917. Retrieved 2016-06-27. Until 2004, Robert Charles Lion Gardiner, the sixteenth lord of the manor, as he liked to call himself, owned it with his niece, Alexandra Creel Goelet. Now that he's gone, it's hers.
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