John Hauberg, 85; Art Collector, Museum Chief

John Hauberg, 85, art collector and benefactor who founded the Pilchuck Glass School and served as president of the Seattle Art Museum, died Friday in Seattle of a heart attack brought on by a bacterial infection.

Hauberg grew up in Rock Island, Ill., the son of John Hauberg Sr., who founded the city’s Hauberg Indian Museum.

After graduating from the University of Washington, the younger Hauberg stayed in Seattle, where he became a civic leader and philanthropist. He was Republican state finance chairman from 1955 to 1964, and helped found the Northwest Hardwoods Assn., the Child Development and Mental Retardation Center and the former Foundation for the Handicapped.

In 1971, he founded the Pilchuck school on his family farm as a summer project. An international faculty now teaches hot-glass design, casting and engraving, stained-glass painting and glass blowing. Hauberg filled his three homes with collections of pre-Columbian art, Northwest Indian art and contemporary Northwest art.

The first chairman of the board of the Seattle Art Museum, Hauberg in 1973 succeeded its founder, Richard Fuller, as president. During his five-year tenure, he was a key player in securing the museum’s downtown location. To celebrate the downtown facility’s opening in 1991, he donated more than 200 pieces of Northwest Coast Indian art; it was considered one of the finest collections of its kind.