Patrick Lennox Tierney, American historian and academic (b. 1914)
Patrick Lennox Tierney (January 28, 1914 – June 12, 2015) was an American Japanologist academic in the field of art history, an emeritus professor of the University of Utah, a former Curator of Japanese Art at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, a former Director of the Pacific Asia Museum, and a former Commissioner of Art and Monuments during the Allied occupation of Japan (1945–1952).In the fall of 2007, the Japanese government acknowledged Tierney's life's work by conferring the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, which represents the third highest of eight classes associated with this award. Accompanying the badge of the Order was a certificate explaining the award as recognition of the extent to which Tierney has "contributed to introducing Japanese fine arts." The efforts of a lifetime have assisted in the propagation of better understanding of traditional Japanese culture in the United States. His visits to Japan every year have cumulatively contributed to exchanges in the art field between the United States and Japan. He turned 100 in January 2014, and died in 2015 at the age of 101.