Harvey Fite

Harvey Fite died in May 1976 while at work on Opus 40, in the process of completing an attached open-air "theater" at the site's northwestern extreme; he was riding a power lawnmower at the time, and he fell into the quarry from a 12-foot precipice. He was 72 years old, and had worked alone on his magnum opus for the last 37 years of his life.

In May 1938, Fite purchased an idle bluestone quarry in Saugerties, New York, a 12-acre site formerly owned by the widow of the last quarrymaster. He designed, engineered and hand-built a fine wooden house at the edge of the quarry grounds, facing the Catskill Mountains, and settled there in High Woods, a rural hamlet within the township of Saugerties, which neighbors Woodstock. Over many years, he embellished his home's exterior with grand necklaces of quarryman's chains, and filled the interior and attached studio with murals, paintings and sculpture, going as far as whittling door handles of arched nudes, so that the building itself is now a museum of Fite's artwork.

A recognized sculptor, Fite was invited in 1933 to organize the fine arts program at his alma mater (St. Stephen's), which, in the three years since his departure, had affiliated with Columbia University and been renamed Bard College. Fite taught there until his retirement in 1969. He settled across the river at the Maverick art colony outside Woodstock, New York.

Harvey Fite (December 25, 1903 – May 9, 1976) was a pioneering American sculptor, painter and earth artist best known for his monumental land sculpture Opus 40. A teacher, innovator and Woodstock artist of many talents, he was primarily a sculptor of wood and stone. Fite is also known for founding the fine arts program at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.