Arthur Eugene Bestor was born in 1879 in Dixon, Illinois.[1]
Bestor became assistant director of the Chautauqua Institution in 1905. Two years later, in 1907, he became director.[2] Since 1915, he served as the President of Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, until 1944.[3] He was a proponent of adult education. Under his twenty-nine year administration, the Institution grew from an assembly for teachers and ministers with modest facilities to a wide-ranging summer program with a symphony orchestra, an opera company, a resident repertory theater company, and celebrated lecturers.
He was married to Jeanette Lemon.[1] They had three children:
- Arthur E. Bestor Jr.[1] He was a distinguished professor of American intellectual and constitutional history, and an important critic of American educational practices.
- Mary Francis Bestor Cram.[1] She was a leader of lay organizations in the American Baptist Church and the Young Women's Christian Association, serving as president of the U.S. organization.
- Charles Lemon Bestor.[1] He was a composer of contemporary classical music, a music educator, and professor of music (emeritus) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
He died on February 3, 1944, in New York City.[1]
