Collector and businessman Walter Bareiss came to the US in 1937, and graduated from Yale university in 1940. He began collecting art at an early age, dispersing a number of collecting interests until settling on African art. He was on the board of Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art from 1964-1973 and chairman of the board of the Yale Art Gallery from 1987-1995. He and his wife Molly (d. 2006) had four sons and a daughter.