William Collins Whitney (S&B 1863)
In 1902 he retired from active business, but continued to influence by his counsels most important and varied interests. He was a trustee of the Consolidated Gas Co., a director in the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Co., Metropolitan Steamship Co., New York Loan and Investment Co., Manufacturing Investment Co., Mergenthaler Linotype Co., the Guggenheim Exploitation Co., the Cuba Co., various local banks, and other business corporations, and a member of many of the prominent political, business, and social organizations of the city.[6]
Within a few years he developed from a single company, by reorganization and consolidation, the Metropolitan Street Railway, which bought out its only rival, and was in turn merged into the Intel urban Street Railway Co.[6]
Although for several years he held no visible office or connection with the system, he controlled its operations and secured the results he sought through others. His judgment in selecting men to carry out his plans was unerring.[6]
With the great increase in his wealth he took pleasure in the purchase and development of immense estates, and for the last six years he had striven with success for a higher standard in all matters connected with the turf.[6]
In 1896 - Mr. Whitney married Mrs. Edith S. (May) Randolph, widow of Colonel Arthur Randolph of the British Army, and daughter of Dr. J. F. May, of Baltimore. In February, 1898, while riding at Aiken, S. C , she received injuries from striking a bridge from which she died in May, 1899.[6]
1888 - In recognition of his services to the country he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale University.
7 Mar 1885 to 4 Mar 1889 - 31st United States Secretary of the Navy by President Grover Cleveland.
Believing that in the matter of naval construction the United States should be independent of all other countries, he brought about such improvements in steel manufacture that it became possible for the first time to fully equip American war vessels with an armament produced at home. The additions to the Navy made under his direction biought the United States to a high rank among the nations as a naval power. [6]
He continued in the practice of his profession until March, 1885, when he became Secretary of the Navy, and held the position until the close of President Cleveland’s administration in 1889.
On Mr Whitney’s retirement from the Cabinet, he devoted himself to private business interests, and immediately became prominent as a financier and promoter of vast enterprises. Returning to New York, he turned his attention to the problem of urban rail way transportation.[6]
1884 - worked to promote the Democratic president candidacy of Grover Cleveland, who, upon taking office, appointed Whitney secretary of the U.S. Navy. During his four years in that post Whitney strengthened the U.S. fleet, which had been neglected after the North’s victory in the Civil War. Under Whitney’s leadership, naval appropriations were more than doubled. He undertook a major shipbuilding program, putting to sea the battleship Maine and others that were to figure prominently in the Spanish-American War (1898).[5]
He became a leader in the direction and policy of the County Democracy, and at the Chicago Convention in 1884 he skillfully exerted a powerful influence for Mr. Cleveland.[6]
1883 - When the business interests, led by William C. Whitney (S&B 1863), pushed throught the first installment of civil service reform in 1883, they expected that they would be able to control both political parties equally. Indeed, some of them intended to contribute to both and to allow an alternation of the two parties in public office in order to conceal their own influence, inhibit any exhibition of independence by politicians, and allow the electorate to believe that they were excercising their own free choice.[3,p73]
In 1871 he was one of the organizeis of the Young Men’s Democratic Club, and was active in the movement which overthrew the Tweed Ring.[6]
In 1872 and for some years following he was school trustee in one of the wards of the city.[6]
9 Aug 1875 to 6 Nov 1882 - He was appointed Counsel to the Corporation of the City of New York and was twice reappointed, resigning the office November 6, 1882, two years before the expiration of his term, after a service of marked efficiency and great benefit to the public interest.[6]
13 Oct 1869 - Married, Flora, daughter of Honorable Henry B. Payne (Hamilton 1832), U. S. Senator from Ohio, and sister of his classmate, Oliver Hazard Payne, and had two sons and three daughters, of whom one daughter died in early childhood. The sons graduated from Yale in 1894 and 1898, respectively. Mrs Whitney died in 1892.[6]
After graduation he took a course at the Harvard Law School, then entered the office of Hon. Abraham R Lawrence, afterward Justice of the Supreme Court of New York.
1865 - On his admission to the bar he began practice with his classmate, Henry Farnam Dimock (S&B 1863)(who married Mr. Whitney’s sister), under the firm name of Dimock & Whitney. Mr Dimock withdrew in 1870, and the following year Mr Whitney formed a partnership with Frederic H Betts, LL.D (Yale 1864) under the name of Whitney H Betts, which continued until 1876 Among many important cases in which he was counsel was the action for libel brought by Charles Reade against the editor of The Round Table on account of a criticism of the novel “Griffith Gaunt.” In this he successfully conducted the defense. He was early sought as counsel of life insurance companies, raihoads, and other large corporations.[6]
Mr. Whitney died at his home in New York of peritonitis and blood poisoning following an operation lor appendicitis, on February 2, 1904. He was in the 63d year of his age.
[3] - Tragedy and Hope : A history of the world in our time by Carroll Quigley
[4] - Wiki - William Collins Whitney (S&B 1863)
[5] - Britannica - William Collins Whitney (S&B 1863)
[6] - Yale University - Obituary - William Collins Whitney (S&B 1863)
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