Edmund Pillsbury ’65, who served as the second director of the Yale Center for British Art from 1976 to 1980, died Thursday in Dallas from a heart attack. He was 66 years old.

He earned his degree in art history from Yale, and went on to receive both master’s and doctoral degrees from the Courtauld Institute of Art, part of the University of London.

At Yale, Pillsbury saw the center into its first years of its public life and further developed Paul Mellon’s collection, said Amy Meyers, the center’s director.

“Ted really set the agenda for the center to be a force in the international world of art history, through museum shows that were created in consortium with museums in the United Kingdom and the United States,” Meyers said.

Pillsbury went on to serve as director of Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum. He worked there for 18 years, and later served as the director of Southern Methodist University’s Meadows Museum from July 2003 to May 2005. Pillsbury was the chairman of the fine arts department of Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas at the time of his death.