IGFA Trustee and Record Holder
Alfred C. Glassell Jr. passes away

Alfred C. Glassell Jr., petroleum industry pioneer, philanthropist, world-class fisherman and member of the IGFA Board of Trustees, died October 29, 2008 after an extended illness.  He was 95.

Alfred Glassell’s 1,560 pound black marlin is the IGFA All-Tackle record for the species, and it remains the ultimate measure of the sport for every serious marlin fisherman.  But his contributions to sport fishing go well beyond that world record.  Although Glassell appeared on the cover of a 1956 Sports Illustrated, few of today’s billfishermen know much about him, and even fewer are familiar with his other accomplishments.  He was the first to boat a black marlin over 1,000 pounds according to IGFA rules and, when he lost the record within a few days, regained it for the second time in a month with a 1,090 pound catch.  Although Glassell traveled the world hunting marlin, bluefin tuna and swordfish, his extensive research convinced him he would find his giant quarry in the bait-rich waters off Cabo Blanco, Peru, and on August 4, 1953 he landed the 1,560 pound record fish that has withstood the test of more than a half-century of tackle and boat improvements.  Film footage of Glassell’s jumping, tail-walking and greyhounding granders was used in the movie version of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, and a replica of his All-Tackle record fish hangs in the Smithsonian Institution.  A member of the U.S. Team at the International Tuna Cup Matches in Nova Scotia, Canada, for seven years, Glassell served as Captain of the 1952 team.

Born in 1913 in Cuba Plantation near Shreveport, Louisiana, Alfred Glassell graduated from Louisiana State University in 1934 with a degree in history, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and moved to Houston in 1945.  He had a passion for art and was recognized for his decades of service to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  First elected to its Board of Trustees in 1970, Glassell became its Chairman in 1990.  His world- renowned collection of West African gold occupies its own galleries in the MFAH, and he was a major force behind the Glassell School of Art, the teaching arm of the Museum.  A generous supporter of marine science, Alfred Glassell organized successful scientific expeditions around the world, aboard his vessel Argosy, for Yale University in 1957 and the University of Miami in 1961, where a research laboratory bears his name. 

Alfred C. Glassell, Jr., industrialist, sportsman, adventurer, amateur oceanographer, marine biologist, philanthropist, civic leader and patron of the arts, was truly a legend in his own time.  He is survived by his wife Clare; five children: Curry Glassell, Alfred C. Glassell III, Lisa Ford, Alison Ford Duncan and Emily Ford Embrey; and six grandsons.