The legacy of Gillett Griffin, who died on June 6 at the age of 87, was vast and eclectic. And that’s just the tangible legacy. (A full obituary appears on page 31.)

Only two weeks ago, shortly before his death, he gave to the Historical Society of Princeton from his personal collection more than 50 photographs, manuscript items, sculptures, books, newspaper clippings, personal possessions and ephemera related to Albert Einstein С who was a personal friend of Mr. Griffin from 1953 until Einstein’s death in 1955.

Mr. Griffin’s gifts to the Princeton University Art Museum, where he was curator of Pre-Columbian and Native American Art emeritus, having retired in 2005 after 38 years as curator, number in the thousands С making him “principally responsible for having shaped for Princeton what is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest collections of the art of the ancient Americas,” according to museum director James Steward.

Mr. Griffin’s contributions to the Princeton University Library Graphic Arts Collection, where he was curator from 1952 to 1966, include the creation of “what would become one of the great university collections in graphic arts and the history of the book, using his personal assemblage of books and prints as the nucleus,” according to a recent article by Rebecca Warren Davidson published by the Princeton University Art Museum.

Enumerations of his remarkable gifts, also including Mr. Griffin’s collection of children’s books published before 1846, now housed at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, could go on and on, but even more impressive than the tangible legacy is the intangible one. His influence on generations of students, scholars, and friends, on the whole field of pre-Columbian art and history, was immeasurable.

“Perhaps his most important quality was that he brought people together — scholars, collectors, friends,” stated Alfred L. Bush, retired curator of Western Americana at the University Library and a friend and colleague of Mr. Griffin since 1958. “He had enormous enthusiasm and an extraordinary eye for pre-Columbian art.”

Mr. Bush, who encouraged Mr. Griffin to go to Mexico for the first time in 1966, when they were colleagues in the library graphic arts department, also aided Mr. Griffin’s move to the Art Museum in 1968. “He loved to excite students about art,” Mr. Bush added, mentioning noteworthy scholars and collectors who had come under Mr. Griffin’s influence.

Mr. Bush went on to describe a memorable gesture that characterized Mr. Griffin’s imaginative and spirited personality: “Anybody who went to his house on Stockton Street, the first time you went there you were allowed to drink from a Greek cup from the fifth century B.C.”

Matthew Robb, a 1994 Princeton graduate and former student of Mr. Griffin who was recently appointed chief curator of the Fowler Museum at the University of California-Los Angeles, recalled, “Gillett was so generous and what I’d call democratic — he treated undergraduates and senior scholars with the same enthusiastic welcome and respect. Princeton could seem a little stuffy at times; parties at Gillet’s home made it a special place, a kind of refuge for creative individuals and those who might find themselves as outsiders. So it’s no surprise that he had such great friendships with similarly outgoing and adventurous scholars like Linda Schele. No idea was too outlandish — there was a kind of fervent willingness to explore and wonder about things.”

When asked in a recent interview with the UCLA Daily Bruin how he became interested in becoming a curator, Mr. Robb responded, “I had this great professor when I was an undergraduate. He was a curator at a university museum. His name was Gillett Griffin. He was a really big influence on me. His work was what attracted me to working museums, that mix of doing both research and education. He had this interest in the ancient Americas and in ancient Mexico in particular, and I really just followed his footsteps.”

John Burkhalter, independent scholar and Princeton musician, who knew Mr. Griffin for more than 40 years and visited him frequently in the summers in Colrain, Massachusetts where Mr. Griffin owned an 18th-century house, described him as a great mentor.

“He was always opening doors,” Mr. Burkhalter stated. “‘If you can’t get in the front door,’ he would say, ‘go in the back door or go down the chimney.’ He was very big in the art world and totally modest, always interested in his friends and their interests. If there was one word for Gillett it was ‘loyal.’ He was devoted to his friends.”

Mr. Burkhalter and Mr. Gillett collaborated on “Music from the Land of the Jaguar,” a 2004 exhibit on pre-Columbian and Mayan art and music at the Princeton Art Museum.

“He loved music,” Mr. Burkhalter described. “Until his final illness I would go over and play music at his house. He was a huge influence on my life. I can’t imagine having gotten to this point in my life without him.”

Noting Mr. Griffin’s extraordinary accomplishments as a collector, Mr. Burkhalter added, “He loved the idea that these objects would be the subject of serious scrutiny for scholars and students for many years into the future. He was so much fun. He used to say, ‘Thank God I was buying these things before the Antiques Road Show.’ He was like my honorary uncle. I was his honorary nephew. He left a huge, huge legacy.”

Bryan Just, another grateful student of Mr. Griffin’s and his successor as curator in the Art of Ancient Americas at the University Museum, continued weekly meetings with his mentor, even after Mr. Griffin’s retirement. Mr. Just emphasized the important precedent established by Mr. Griffin of combining curatorial work with teaching.

“Gillett possessed a wealth of knowledge about aesthetic and historical questions. He had an incredible network of colleagues and acquaintances in the field—scholars, many former students. He had an incredible memory for the field and for all the key players in the world of pre-Columbian American Art.”

HIghlighting Mr. Griffin’s advocacy for the creative arts at Princeton University, Ms. Davidson, in her article on Mr. Griffin and the graphic arts, described his most valuable legacy as “the ability to bring people together and to foster the resulting happy alliances.”

She elaborated, “Gillett appears in the guise of an ordinary, amiable fellow, but also inhabits another world, one rich in fantasy, art, and theatrical good humor, all of which — even more remarkably — he is willing to share with everyone he meets. An encounter with Gillett always increases one’s knowledge and understanding of one of the many topics on which he is an expert. At the same time, it is also an ‘occasion’ and a reminder that serious subjects may be leavened with a dash of lightheartedness, and liberally spiced with the puns and other wordplay for which Gillett is legendary.”