www.montereycountynow.com AUGUST 20-26, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 17 Seavey says. When he graduated high school in 1957, he and a friend joined the U.S. Marines, where he landed in the 1st Force Reconnaissance Company doing intel work in Asia, including parachuting into locations. He left active duty in 1961 to get an education—he intended to re-enter later as an officer. He studied at Riverside City College and then San Francisco State. “I took a degree in the humanities because I didn’t learn anything in grade school except cursive and how to add 2 and 2,” Seavey says. He was set to return to active duty, knowing he’d be sent to Vietnam. That is until he had an encounter with a pilot who was recovering after being shot down over China. “‘All you’re going to do is get killed. We lose 70 percent of our second lieutenants,’” he recalls the pilot saying. The pilot took Seavey’s re-enlistment papers and tore them up. He stayed in the reserve and ended up as a sergeant major of the 23rd Marine Regiment in the 1980s. While he was at Riverside City College, he worked in his first museum, a job that came about by chance. He was attempting to collect unemployment, but after being told he’d have to be available to work at any time day or night—not conducive to attending classes—he had a few choice words with the agent and walked out. Seavey stepped out of the office into the 105-degree Riverside heat and noticed a sign across the street that said “museum.” An indoor job seemed like a good idea. He walked over and asked if they had any work. It turned out the retired colonel in charge was looking for an assistant. During the interview, the two men discovered they had both served in Taiwan at different times and a bond was formed. “That’s how I entered the museum world,” Seavey says. When he left Riverside for San Francisco, it was a random conversation with a man on a bus that led to another opportunity. As they talked, the man asked Seavey what he did for work. “Nothing,” was Seavey’s reply. “‘Well, you’ve got a bulletin board there. Go check it out, you might find something interesting,’” Seavey recalls the man saying. He looked at the board and found a notice from the California Historical Society looking for someone to move a 25,000-volume library from one place to another. He interviewed for the job and was named assistant curator of the society that day. “And my life has been somewhat like that, happy, happy accidents—circumstance,” Seavey says. Eventually Seavey became curator of the Society and then went to work for the de Young Museum in San Francisco. In his free time he played rugby and enjoyed a wide array of friends, including museum people, doctors, lawyers and “interesting friends in the middle of hippie hippie-ness,” he says. “To give you some suggestion of my life in the city: I was there at one of the dives when Janis Joplin replaced Grace Slick. That was an interesting night.” Seavey spent 1965 lecturing on behalf of the California Historical Societies on “The New Museum,” according to one newspaper account, advocating for the establishment of small, regional museums. He also served as a “trouble-shooter” to solve problems for existing museums, according to the article. His rapidly growing reputation as a curator led him to Carmel for the establishment of an art museum that briefly came together, only to fall apart. Carmel’s loss became Monterey County’s gain. In 1966 Seavey was asked by a member of the Crocker family, Suzanne Crocker White, and her husband Anthony White, for some help with their grand vision for an art museum to house their extensive California art collection. The Carmel Museum of Art seemed like a perfect Top: Seavey worked on restoring the three cannery worker cabins located on Cannery Row, not far from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Below: Visitors check out the cabins, which include furniture and items that workers in the early to mid-20th century would have used. DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS
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