Julian Bingham Abbott ’49 was born on February 15, 1926 in Cleveland, Ohio; He attended boarding school at the elite Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts where he was on the wrestling team and worked on the school newspaper.  After high school, Abbott joined the US Army and fought in World War II.  When the war ended, he enrolled in Yale College. Following graduation, Abbott returned to Cleveland, Ohio to begin his career as an interior designer at the venerated firm Rorimer-Brooks, which specialized in oak-wood Jacobean furniture and outfitted homes of the well-to-do in Cleveland’s burgeoning suburbs. 

Seven years later, after the company was acquired, he moved to New York City. Abbott spent 15 years designing spaces for Theodore Hofstatter & Co., an upscale firm on Fifth Avenue, before moving out to the East End of Long Island to set up his own company with his partner in business and life, W. Scott Jackson.   While living in East Hampton, Abbott was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. 

He died in 1990. He was 64 years old. 

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