He was born 11th January 1930 and brought up in Skive in North Jutland. He was the youngest of a family of 4 children. At a young age he started an apprenticeship as a painter and he believed that the ballast, he learnt to tidy up after himself and to keep everything in order was a good way to start his training at the Royal College of Art in Copenhagen, from which he graduated in 1955.
 
During his training he was introduced to clay and decided to abandon painting – he would rather became a skilled ceramicist rather than a mediocre painter. In the years that followed, Lynggaard created a magnitude of large-scale ceramic works and skilled craftsmanship and he received high recognition both in Denmark and abroad for his work.
 
Lynggaard was invited as a visiting lecturer to many institutions around the world. On one of these trips to Toronto, Cananda in 1970, one of his ceramic friends managed to persuade him to experiment with hot glass. The searing thread of glass soon wound itself around Finn’s neck and it was definitely a matter of ”instant love”. When he arrived home, he announced that the family would now have to live on porridge, because “Dad was going to play with glass”.
 
Literally the sparks flew, when Finn Lynggaard made his first attempt at taming the temperamental and ’impatient’ material and he also cast himself into arranging exhibitions and teaching glass. He quickly became involved in the international studio glass movement, which had started in the US nine years earlier.
 
At a symposium in Vienna at the beginning of the 1980’s, Finn Lynggaard suggested that a museum for international glass should be established, and that it should be situated in Ebeltoft. The artists were very enthusiastic. Typical for Finn, the collection of glass for the collection was already well underway long before he had found a building to house the collection! It was one thing was to convince the artists that this was a good idea, but another to convince the politicians in Ebeltoft.
 
Thanks to Finn’s enormous commitment, his large network and experienced and competent business partners and with the support of the local authorities, Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II was able to carry out the official inauguration of Glasmuseet Ebeltoft on 28^th June 1986. He continued to take an active part in developing the museum over the years.
 
Finn Lynggaard received many national and international awards and honours throughout his career. He was made Ridder of Dannebrog in 1990 and received Statens Kunstfonds Livstidsydelse in 1998. He is also represented in many private and museum collections around the world.
 
He was the author of several books on glass and ceramics and in connection with his 80^th birthday last year, he published the book “Status 80” and arranged the retrospective exhibition of the same title. Everything from fundraising to text, design and selection of works from his vast collection of drawings, paintings, ceramics and glass he naturally managed himself.
 
Finn Lynggaard was small in stature but a great and committed person to the very end. He is survived by his wife, Tchai Munch and his four children.