Peter Selz, who as a leading curator at the Museum of Modern Art staged wide-ranging exhibitions of Mark Rothko’s paintings and Auguste Rodin’s sculptures before leaving to become the founding director of the University Art Museum, Berkeley, died June 21 in Albany, CA. He was 100.

He was born to a prosperous Jewish family in Munich, Germany. His maternal grandfather, an art dealer, introduced him to art, taking him to local museums and galleries. “When he saw my response, he took me almost every week,” Mr. Selz said in an interview.

He joined the MOMA in 1958, leaving in 1964 for the position at Berkeley, then in its planning stages. It opened in 1970. He continued to teach modern art at the university until he retired in 1988.