Thomas Lee McClung_SandB1892.jpg

Thomas Lee McClung (S&B 1892)

United States Treasurer. Phillips Exeter Academy*. Yale University. Skull and Bones. American College Football player.

He had been a director of the National New Haven Bank, the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Conn., the Marion (Ala.) Institute; treasurer and a director of the American Association for Highway Improvement, and a national council man of the Boy Scouts of America.[7]

McClung (S&B 1892) resigned his post [Treasurer of the United States] because of a dispute in the Treasury Department, a so-called “mutiny” led by Abram Piatt Andrew, then Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, who had troubles with Secretary of Treasury Franklin MacVeagh (S&B 1862) which involved McClung (S&B 1892). Abram Andrew would later attend the Jekyll Island meeting 20 Nov to 30 Nov 1910… for the secret drafting of the Federal Reserve Act.[2]

Andrew, who resigned on July 3 of that year, criticized MacVeagh’s (S&B 1862) lax business methods and poor administrative skills, naming several Treasury officials as agreeing with him, including McClung (S&B 1892).

MacVeagh (S&B 1862) asked McClung (S&B 1892)[and others] to repudiate Andrew’s statement concerning him, but he refused, and relations between them became strained. However, President Taft (S&B 1878) called a truce at the Treasury until after the election that year, with McClung (S&B 1892) announcing his resignation nine days after Taft’s (S&B 1878) decisive defeat.[4]

1909 to 1912 - Treasurer of the United States by President William Howard Taft (S&B 1878). [Note: 27 May 1908, Aldrich-Vreeland Act in response to the Panic of 1907 was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. Recommended the Federal Reserve … Search mind map] When McClung assumed the duties of Treasuer he gave a receipt to his predecessor for $1,260,134,346.83 2/3 an acknowledgment of the money and securities in the department as of the day McClung took office.[4]

Preceded by Charles H. Treat (Grandson of Col. Ezra Treat. Spokesman for James G. Blaine whose son was S&B 1876. Revenue collector by Pres. McKinley Sponsor by Elihu Root (close to Taft S&B 1878) and Cornelius N. Bliss, member of Jekyll Island Club ).

Succeeded by Carmi A. Thompson, gave McClung (S&B 1892), an even larger check $1,519,285,908.57 ⅔ on Dec 4, 1912.

FYI - Financial Panic of 1907. Markets did not recover until Apr 1909. The crisis lead to the Federal Reserve Act.

1905, Yale conferred the honorary degree of M.A. upon him.[7]

1904 to 1909 - Treasurer of Yale University.[7]

1902 to 1904 - Assistant Freight Traffic Manager.[7]

1899 to 1904 - Serving in various capacities, Southern Railway Company owned by J.P.Morgan.[7]

1894 - Paymaster for the St. Paul & Dulth Railroad.[7]

Became first coach of University of California.

Travelled Europe and California for one year.[7]

1892 - Graduated Yale, Skull and Bones Patriarch.[0]

Died 19 Dec 1914, in London from typhoid fever contract at Frankfurt. Age 44. Unmarried.

Funeral took place at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York.