A life-long desire for knowledge

Elia Powers

As the story goes, Armand J. Labbe, then 5 years old, was sitting in

a rocking chair when his grandfather interrupted to ask what weighed

so heavily on his mind.

“He said, ‘I’m thinking about the meaning of life,’” according to

Susan Lerer, a longtime friend of Labbe’s.

“He was a brilliant person,” she said. “It’s not often we run into

an intellect like that.”

Noted for his introspection, knowledge of foreign cultures and

passion for ancient artifacts, Labbe, a Costa Mesa resident, was the

chief curator and director of research and collections at the Bowers

Museum of Cultural Arts in Santa Ana.

He died April 2 of cancer. He was 60.

Born near Boston, Labbe took a liking to history at an early age.

But for a period of time, it looked as if religion would be the

driving force in his life. He entered seminary in the early 1960s and

appeared to be set on a career as a priest.

Lerer said Labbe began to question aspects of religious teachings

and decided to change paths. He returned to school, where he studied

anthropology at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

He joined the Bowers staff in 1978 as a curatorial assistant and

began building up the art collection. When the museum’s new

president, Peter Keller, came aboard in 1992, he promoted Labbe to

head curator.

“He was a really passionate person and cared deeply about his

job,” Keller said. “If you handed him an artifact, he could expand on

it for hours. He saw things that no one else noticed.”

During his tenure, Labbe wrote 14 books and helped bring dozens of

exhibitions to the museum, Keller said. He was the primary curator

for 30 shows, including “Colombia Before Columbus,” a highly

anticipated exhibition that came to the museum in the late 1980s.

Labbe penned a book by that name and was a specialist in

pre-Columbian American history and art. In 1988, the book was honored

by the Colombian government, which created a postage stamp based on

the book’s cover.

Over his 27-year tenure at Bowers, Labbe is credited as being one

of the primary reasons for the museum’s growth.

He prided himself on being a lifelong student of international

cultures and their mythologies, Lerer said. At the time of his death,

he was intending to complete several more books, including one on the

history of Chinese art, she said.

Throughout his career, Labbe shared his anthropological knowledge

with others. He gave regular lectures at Bowers and was a part-time

professor at Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and Santa Ana College.

Paul Daniels, who traveled to India and Thailand in the Peace

Corps, said he was drawn to Labbe’s intellect when he met him 10

years ago.

“I felt very close to him, as if I knew him more than the actual

hours we spent together,” Daniels said. “I had no idea how many lives

he’d touched.”

Lerer, who met Labbe while she was on Bowers’ board of directors,

said she was struck by Labbe’s values.

“He was more of a spiritual person than a material person ...

though as a curator he was a master of material culture,” Lerer said.

“He bought artifacts but didn’t covet them. More important was what

they taught him about different cultures.”

Labbe is survived by his brother, Ray Labbe; and his sister,

Georgette Arakelian.Daniels said more than 300 people attended

Labbe’s mid-April memorial service.