William Montague Backer, a renowned advertiser and land conservationist, died at age 89 following a short illness. He had a successful career in advertising, creating famous campaigns for Coke, Campbell Soup, and Miller Lite. He was also passionate about foxhunting, horse breeding and racing. Throughout his life, he was deeply committed to land conservation in Virginia.

1. 98 The Chronicle of the Horse
William Montague
Backer
Renowned advertiser, land conser-
vationist, foxhunter, and race
horse breeder and owner William
Montague Backer of The
Plains, Va., died on May
13 in Fauquier Hospital
in Warrenton, Va.,
following a short
illness. He was 89.
Mr. Backer was
born on June 9, 1926,
in New York City to
William Bryant Backer
and Ferdinanda Legare
Waring. His father died
when he was 6, and Mr. Backer
moved to Charleston, S.C., with
his mother and became involved in
foxhunting. He served in the Navy
for two years before attending Yale
University (Conn.). After graduating
in 1950, he dabbled in the real estate
business and started an advertising
jingle company.
In 1953, Mr. Backer took a job in
the mailroom at McCann Erickson.
He worked his way up to creative
director in 1972 and vice chairman
in 1978. A year later he formed his
own advertising agency with Carl
Spielvogel.
Mr. Backer will be remembered
for his 1971 Coca-Cola “Hilltop”
commercial, which made the phrase
“I’d like to buy the world a Coke”
famous, as well as his Campbell Soup
and Miller Lite advertisements. In
1995, Mr. Backer was inducted into
the Advertising Hall of Fame, and he
was named one of AdvertisingAge’s
100 Most Important People in
Advertising in 1999. He also authored
The Care and Feeding of Ideas. The
final episode of “Mad Men” featured
the Coke commercial.
After almost four decades in the
advertising business, Mr. Backer
retired to his Smitten Farm, which
he’d bought in the early ’80s.
Throughout his career Mr. Backer
spent his leisure time foxhunting.
He was on the board of the Orange
County Hunt (Va.) for 50 years and
also served as president.
“He was just one of the smartest
guys I’ve ever worked with and one of
the nicest,” said John Coles, jt.-MFH
of the Orange County Hounds. “He
was very creative and really thought
out of the box.”
“He was one of the
longest-serving
board members we
had,” said jt.-MFH
Malcolm Matheson
III and fellow board
member. “He was a
wonderful person and
a wonderful friend. He
was the most talented
guy you would ever meet.
He could just sit down at the
piano and play out a tune and sing to
it. When he was up in Connecticut
hunting, he wrote some hunt songs
for them. He liked to hunt until he
couldn’t anymore. He will be missed.”
Shortly after beginning his adver-
tising career, Mr. Backer and a
partner spent about $500 to purchase
a Thoroughbred weanling. The colt,
Wink Proof, provided him with
his first career victory in 1956 at
the Bowie Race Track (Md.). Over
the years he bred numerous stakes
winners at Smitten Farm. He was
also on the board of the Virginia
Thoroughbred Association.
“It brought him a lot of joy,”
Christopher Miller, friend and presi-
dent of the Piedmont Environmental
Council, said of Mr. Backer’s involve-
ment in racing and breeding.
“He had a fantastic interest in race
horses and the breeding operation,”
said Matheson. “He ran a tremendous
operation at his farm.”
Mr. Backer also produced hay at
Smitten Farm, which he sold and fed
to his own horses. “He was proud of
the fact that his hay won a bunch of
blue ribbons,” said Miller.
In addition to his involvement in
foxhunting and racing, Mr. Backer
committed himself to local land
conservation beginning in the 1960s
when he joined the Upper Fauquier
Association. He co-produced The
Piedmont Virginian, a local news-
paper that provided updates on land
development, conservation and agri-
cultural issues in the 1970s. He was
a strong supporter of the Piedmont
Environmental Council. In 2004 he
became president of the Piedmont
Foundation, which supports the PEC,
and he remained in the position until
his death. Mr. Backer raised an esti-
mated $15 million for the foundation.
“He was literally one of the kindest
and most humane people who I’ve
ever worked with,” said Miller. “He
was very intelligent and creative.
When you were faced with a tough
situation, he would be the one to
crack jokes to keep everybody from
losing their sense of perspective. No
matter what the circumstance was,
he always had an incredible sense
of humor. He loved life—until the
very end he had big plans. We were
working on an idea for a national
communications campaign to
encourage conservation of open land,
and he would call me once a week to
check in and follow up and discuss it.
When he was involved in something
he was in the whole way. You got his
full attention.”
Mr. Backer is survived by his wife
of 30 years, Ann Backer (née Mudge).
In lieu of flowers, memorial dona-
tions may be made to the Piedmont
Environmental Council, PO Box 460,
Warrenton, VA 20188.
Dr. Max Gahwyler
U.S. Dressage Federation Hall of
Fame member Dr. Max Gahwyler
died at home on May 13 in Darien,
Conn. He was 92.
Dr. Gahwyler was born on July 22,
1923, to Dr. Max Wilhelm Gahwyler
and Countess Anna Wilhelmina
Gahwyler (née Wolkenstein-
Trostburg) in Switzerland. In his
younger years, Dr. Gahwyler enjoyed
mountain climbing and skiing.
He studied internal medicine in
Lausanne and Geneva. In 1952, he
moved to the United States with his
wife, Doris, to work for Pfizer Inc.
and American Home, specializing in
antibiotic research and worldwide
marketing.
OBIT
UARIES
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2. 100 The Chronicle of the Horse
Upon moving to the States, Dr.
Gahwyler and his wife began riding,
and he got involved in the dres-
sage community. In the 1960s, Dr.
Gahwyler and other dressage enthusi-
asts founded the American Dressage
Institute at the Ox Ridge Hunt Club
(Conn.). He served on the ADI’s board
and became president in 1974.
Dr. Gahwyler’s good friend
Margarita “Migi” Serrell was the first
president of the ADI, and together
they brought over European trainers
such as Karl Mikolka, Nuno Oliveira
and Col. Hans Handler to teach
dressage camps at Skidmore College
(N.Y.). Dr. Gahwyler was also a
student of Handler’s.
Dr. Gahwyler competed up to the
Prix St. Georges level. The idea for
The Dressage Foundation’s Century
Club—where the combined age of an
actively competing horse and rider is
more than 100—was Dr. Gahwyler’s.
He was the second person to qualify
for the honor, which he did in 1996
aboard Prinz Eugen. He qualified a
second time in 2002 with Dresden.
As a trainer, Dr. Gahwyler taught
clinics and individual students
from beginners to FEI-level riders.
He believed in carefully tailoring
programs for young horses and the
FEI regulations to protect the horse.
He educated American riders as to
why certain rules and classical form
had to be followed to prevent a horse
from becoming injured. He constantly
reminded people to treat horses with
kindness and fairness. “Max’s pockets
were always full of sugar cubes for his
equine students,” remembered family
friend Donna Coughlin.
“Max always loved learning and
adored teaching,” said Coughlin. “He
was very active in the USDF and was
a passionate scholar, researching the
history of dressage, discussing and
using it as the basis for training in
modern times.”
As a U.S. Equestrian Federation “S”
judge, Dr. Gahwyler viewed judging
as a teaching tool. He was a harsh
critic of unstable contact and exagger-
ated movements.
Dr. Gahwyler enjoyed studying
antique riding literature. He shared
his knowledge in numerous presen-
tations across the country. He also
authored three volumes in a series
called The Competitive Edge: Improving
Your Dressage Scores in the Lower
Levels, Moving Up the Levels, and
Gravity, Balance, and Kinetics of the
Horse and Rider.
“When I think of Max, what I
remember most is his unfailing
sense of humor and wit, his warmth,
endless patience, unbelievable kind-
ness, generosity, and above all, his
love and respect for animals, espe-
cially horses,” said Coughlin. “The
Gahwylers’ horses lived at home
and were definitely members of his
family—sound, happy and competi-
tive into their late 20s and early 30s.”
Dr. Gahwyler is survived by his
wife Doris, of Darien, Conn.
In lieu of flowers, donations
can be made to The Dressage
Foundation’s Century Club at www.
dressagefoundation.org/century-club/
about.html and/or H.O.R.S.E. of
Connecticut at www.horseofct.org/.
Ice D’Ancoeur
The Kessler family’s show jumper Ice
D’Ancoeur died from colic on May 23
after a four-year retirement at Kessler
Show Stables, LLC in Kentucky. She
was 20.
The chestnut Selle Français mare
(Le Prince de Thurin—Uzel de Roche,
Prince Ig’Or) competed in CSI*****s
with France’s Marie Etter Pellegrin
until 2008. After becoming pregnant
with her first child, Pellegrin sold the
mare to the Kessler family.
Katie Prudent found “Ice” for Reed
Kessler, but the two didn’t hit it off
immediately.
“I tried her in the winter in
Switzerland, so it was really cold,
and she was wild,” recalled Reed. “I
didn’t like the feeling, but Katie told
me not judge the book by its cover.
Her record spoke for itself—and she
was right. Anyone who knows Ice
knows that she was incredibly hot,
very unconventional and opinionated!
But she was a fighter, careful, and one
of the fastest horses I’ve ever seen at a
horse show.”
The pair began competing in 2009
when Reed was 14, and they enjoyed
immediate success in the high junior
jumpers at the Winter Equestrian
Festival (Fla.). That same year they
won the $15,000 Show Jumping Hall
of Fame Junior Jumper Classic at
Devon (Pa.), and Ice helped Reed
earn the Leading Junior Jumper
Rider title. Later that year, they won
the USEF Individual Junior Jumper
Championship at the Pennsylvania
National Horse Show.
Ice and Reed also competed inter-
nationally, winning all their young
rider classes in Nieuwpoort, Belgium,
in 2009.
“I was last to go in the grand prix,”
recalled Reed. “There were cows in
the field next to the ring, and Ice hated
cows. She saw them after the second
jump and spooked, causing me to lose
my stirrup. As she ran off, my stirrup
went behind the saddle, so I couldn’t
get it back—it was flapping up and
down on her back causing her to bolt
even more. The next fence was the
open water—already not her favorite—
and I lost the other stirrup the same
way. I jumped the remaining 10 jumps
with no stirrups at a complete dead
run with no control. I was the only
clear round, and I won. I couldn’t stop
after the last jump. We lapped the ring
twice, and then Ice ran me past boot
check and all the way back to the barn
into the stall. It was terrifying but
hilarious years later.”
Reed’s parents, Murray and
Teri Kessler, also showed Ice. Teri
competed her in Europe, winning at
multiple one- and two-star competi-
tions, as well as taking tricolors in the
low amateur-owner jumpers at WEF.
Ice was known for her intelligence
and strong mind.
“She knew who she was and how
she should be treated,” said Reed.
“She was a fighter with so much heart
and desire to win. Ice taught me so
much: how to go fast, how to win, and
how to love and appreciate unconven-
tional horses.”
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