Charles Payson, 86; Philanthropist, Industrialist

Charles Shipman Payson, an industrialist, philanthropist and horse breeder, is dead at 86.

Payson, who had embarked recently on a career as a thoroughbred breeder, died May 5 in the emergency room of Humana Hospital in Lexington, Ky. He had homes in Maine and Kentucky.

Among Payson’s philanthropies was a $17-million donation that led to the construction of the Portland Museum of Art building that bears his name. His donations also included 17 Winslow Homer paintings, valued at $6.4 million.

A graduate of Yale and then Harvard Law School, Payson embarked on an industrial career that made him one of the richest people in the nation.

In 1983, Forbes magazine listed him as one of America’s 400 wealthiest men, with an estimated net worth of more than $120 million. He had parlayed a $3-million inheritance from his father-in-law, William Payne Whitney, into corn products refineries, stainless steel manufacturing and uranium mining.

His first wife, Joan Whitney Payson, was the owner of the New York Mets baseball team from its inception in 1962 until her death in 1975. Their daughter, Lorinda de Roulet, sold the team in 1980.

In 1977 Payson married Virginia Kraft, a former editor with Sports Illustrated and they set off on a career in thoroughbred racing, operating a breeding farm and racing stable in Kentucky and a thoroughbred training center in Florida.

An avid sportsman, Payson was believed to be the oldest member of the New York Yacht Club and supported every America’s Cup defense since the modern revival of the race.

He was also a fisherman, and at age 85 landed a 106-pound tarpon from a small boat off Marathon, Fla., without benefit of harness or fighting chair.