At home and abroad, eager to help

While his fascination with art was developing, so was his interest in Geraldine Ritter, a fetching nursing student who was 10 years younger. She spotted Pincus walking his basset hound in Rittenhouse Square. They were introduced by the watchman who guarded the park.

Two days before she was to marry another man, she canceled the wedding. Then she converted to Judaism so she could marry Pincus. "I wasn't a very good Catholic anyway," she said.

On their honeymoon in December 1960, the Pincuses were dining in Rome when they spied Henry Moore, the British sculptor, at a nearby table. For the young art aficionado, Moore was the Joe DiMaggio of sculptors.

Gerry Pincus sent a note to Moore's room. The artist invited the couple for breakfast, and they struck up a friendship. The newlyweds canceled plans to travel to Vienna, Austria, and went instead to Moore's home in England. As they were about to depart, Moore offered to sell them a "little remembrance" - a bronze sculpture of a woman on a bench. It's still at their Wynnewood house.

Pincus' connections in the art world multiplied. He became involved in the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania when it opened in 1963. Through the ICA, he met Warhol and acquired a few of his works, some of them promised to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Pincus headed the 20th Century Committee and was a trustee for more than 35 years.

Through ICA, Pincus also met the sculptor David Smith and bought two of his pieces. One was later donated to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where Pincus was a board member. The other was sold to help fund a seven-figure shortfall in the pension plan of PBM's employees. Pincus said he wanted to exit the business "like a mensch."

"He has a great eye, and recognized greatness early," said Penny Bach, executive director of the Fairmount Park Art Association, on whose board Pincus has served for 37 years.

Perhaps his closest friendship with an artist began in 1964 when Pincus met the abstract sculptor Mark di Suvero at a showing in New York. Pincus sent di Suvero a monthly $200 check while di Suvero was developing his signature style of giant steel I-beam forms.

"Wow, that man is from another dimension," di Suvero said of Pincus, who paid frequent visits to the artist's New York studio over the years. "He has the kind of electricity that is essential to art. He is a rare patron. He has this joy of giving."