‘Frolic’ Weymouth leaves legacy of land, art and laughter; Brandywine Conservancy founder dies at 79

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Nearly five years ago when her husband, horseman Rance O’Brien, passed away, Francena Chalfant prevailed upon her old family friend, George A. “Frolic” Weymouth, to allow her use of the outdoor chapel he had built on his Chadds Ford farm for a memorial service. Just three years earlier, he had permitted her to use it when her mother, Joan, had died.

“Frolic told me to come and go from the chapel as often as I wished, and for a year after Rance’s death, that was extremely important to me to sit in his sublime space and feel closer not only to God but at peace with Earth,” said the Chadds Ford floral designer.

It was par for the course for a man who built his life around preserving the world’s natural beauty and who, this week, will be memorialized in the chapel in the woods on his 250-acre farm, The Big Bend.

In 1995, when Weymouth built the chapel he inscribed on it: “This chapel was built to thank God for a wonderful life filled with fun, humor, work, sport and beauty. A close loving family; loyal and unique friends, and a fabulous son, Mac.”

But the greatest legacy of the 79-year-old artist, environmentalist and horseman, who died at his 18th century stone farmhouse Sunday after a long illness, is what he has left as founder and chairman of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art. He established what would become the conservancy in 1967 when he, Francis I. DuPont and Bill Pritchett purchased 47 acres of land that had been threatened with industrial development. The Brandywine Conservancy has grown to 62,000 acres of permanently protected property in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Chalfant said Weymouth’s love of open space inspired her father, architect Richard Chalfant’s, design of Ringfield, the region’s first land condominium. Weymouth, in turn, told her Chalfant’s design fueled his desire to preserve open space.

Weymouth helped acquire Hoffman’s Mill, a nineteenth‐century building on the banks of the Brandywine River. After extensive renovation, it was opened in 1971 as the Brandywine River Museum, home to 4,000 works by Brandywine Valley artists including those of Jamie Wyeth and the late N.C. and Andrew Wyeth. Weymouth, himself, was an accomplished artist.

“My grandmother wrote in her book that one of the highlights of her life was a dinner Frolic held to celebrate the art opening of my great-grandfather, J.D. Chalfant’s work at the Brandywine River Museum,” said Chalfant.

Weymouth, who was formerly married to Andrew Wyeth’s niece, Anna Brelsford McCoy, was referred to as a family member, neighbor and friend by Jamie Wyeth in an obituary released by the conservancy.

“He was truly a force of nature that instilled his passion for art and the environment into all of his many friends, and they opened their hearts and their wallets to his causes,” said Wyeth.

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