Frederick R. Mayer, an oilman and art collector whose support for the Denver Art Museum included an $11 million endowment, died Wednesday from an illness following surgery.

Mr. Mayer, whose buoyant personality served him well in both his passion for business and art, was 79.

The Ohio native and his wife, Jan, in 2003 gave the art museum the endowment to bolster collecting and exhibitions in the pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial collections. The couple collected deeply in those areas, as well as works on paper and contemporary art.

"He was a tremendous supporter of the museum," said Frederic C. Hamilton Jr., museum board chairman, fellow oilman and old friend who got to know Mr. Mayer's father when they both lived in Dallas. Hamilton asked Mr. Mayer to join the museum board.

"As a businessman, he did a hell of a job, then he sold it (Exeter Drilling Co.)," Hamilton said. "He was extremely smart. He was a very generous, quiet, thoughtful man people liked and respected."

The Mayers' eye for art also inspired them to build the Red House, the first single-family home constructed in lower downtown in decades and a favorite location for charitable events. The elegant modern building is as much gallery as home, with art hung throughout and sculpture on the roof.

Veteran resources man Cortlandt Dietler, who knew the oilman for years, called him a "renaissance man."

"He was an athlete, an accomplished skier, deep-sea diver," Dietler said. "He was a wine expert and an absolutely master collector of everything from pre-Columbian art to Central American coins to a terrific stamp collection."

Dietler saw Mr. Mayer for the last time before Christmas. "He liked a good time and was able to provide for himself and all his friends. He was a gentleman and will be missed not only by his family, but everybody who knew and respected him in the oil business and collectors' circles."

The Mayers' trove regularly landed them on ARTNews magazine's annual Top 200 Collectors list.

"I married a collector," Jan Mayer said in a 2000 interview with the Rocky Mountain News. "It's a disease, but has been a wonderful togetherness for us."

And a major boon to Denver.

"While his legacy in this community and beyond will continue for generations to come, Frederick's gentle nature and wise advice will be greatly missed by me and many others in the cultural community," museum Director Lewis Sharp said in a statement.

Along with the long-term loan and donation of sizeable numbers of pre-Columbian artifacts and Spanish Colonial paintings to the Denver Art Museum, the Mayers, in 1999, gave 40 works from their contemporary collection to Metropolitan State College of Denver's then-Center for the Visual Arts to auction as a fundraiser. It garnered more than $60,000.

Mr. Mayer's advice to potential collectors was to just do it: "I see people afraid to buy the first painting. They're afraid of what their friends will think of them. Do something. Don't just stand there."

Mr. Mayer is survived by his wife of 48 years, the former Jan MacCasler Perry, and their children Rick, Tony and Perry Ellen; eight grandchildren; and sister Elizabeth Ann Boeckman.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be sent to the Family Resource Centers, 1653 Vine St., Denver 80206, or the Denver Art Museum's development department, 414 14th St., Denver 80202.

Frederick R. Mayer

• Born: Youngstown, Ohio, Jan. 25, 1928; raised in Dallas

• Education: Graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy (1945) and Yale University (1950).

• The oil business: Formed Exeter Drilling Co. in 1953, which a year later moved from Texas to the Denver-Julesburg Basin. Sold Exeter in 1980 to Peoples Energy Co. in Chicago after it grew into the nation's largest privately held drilling company. In 1982 formed Captiva Corp., an oil and gas company.

• Denver Art Museum: The longtime board member, through his JFM Foundation, gave the museum an $11 million endowment in 2003.