Harold Stirling Vanderbilt | |
|---|---|
 Vanderbilt at the helm of hisJ-class yachtEnterprise (Time, September 15, 1930) | |
| Mayor ofManalapan, Florida | |
| In office 1952–1966 | |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1884-07-06)July 6, 1884 |
| Died | July 4, 1970(1970-07-04) (aged 85) |
| Spouse | |
| Parents | |
| Education | St. Mark's School Harvard Law School |
| Alma mater | Harvard College |
| Occupation | |
Harold Stirling VanderbiltCBE (July 6, 1884 – July 4, 1970) was an American railroad executive, a championyachtsman, an innovator and champion player ofcontract bridge, and a member of theVanderbilt family.[1]
He was born inOakdale, New York, the third child ofWilliam Kissam Vanderbilt andAlva Erskine Smith. To family and friends he was known as "Mike". His siblings wereWilliam Kissam Vanderbilt II andConsuelo Vanderbilt.[1]
His maternal grandfather wasMurray Forbes Smith. As the great-grandson of the shipping and railroad tycoonCornelius Vanderbilt, he was born to great wealth and privilege; as a child he was raised inVanderbilt mansions, traveled frequently to Europe, and sailed the world on yachts owned by his father. His nephew,Barclay Harding Warburton III, founded theAmerican Sail Training Association.[2]
Vanderbilt was educated by tutors and atprivate schools in Massachusetts, includingSt. Mark's School,Harvard College (AB 1907), andHarvard Law School, which he attended from 1907 to 1910.[1]
After Harvard Law, he joined theNew York Central Railroad, the centerpiece of his family's vast railway empire, of which his father was president.[1]
On his father's death in 1920, Harold inherited a fortune that included theIdle Hour country estate atOakdale, New York (onLong Island) and equity in several railway companies, includingDetroit, Toledo &Milwaukee Railroad, theGenesee Falls Railway, theKanawha and Michigan Railway, theKanawha and West Virginia Railroad, theNew Jersey Junction Railroad, theNew York Central Railroad, theNew York and Harlem Railroad and thePittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad.
Following the death of his brother William in 1944, he remained the only active representative of the Vanderbilt family involved with the New York Central Railroad. He served as a director and member of the executive committee until 1954, when the New York Central was subjected to a hostile takeover by business tycoonRobert R. Young.[1] Young committed suicide four years later.
Vanderbilt nearly lost his yacht, theVagrant, on Britain's entry into theFirst World War. The British competitor for the 1914 America's Cup,Shamrock IV, was crossing the Atlantic with the steam yachtErin, destined forBermuda, when Britain declared war on Germany on August 5, 1914. The British crews received word of the declaration of war by radio. As the commodore of the New York Yacht Club, Vanderbilt sent theVagrant fromRhode Island to Bermuda to meet theShamrock IV andErin, and to escort them to the US. Meanwhile, among the first things done in Bermuda on the declaration was to remove all maritime navigational aids. TheVagrant arrived on the 8th. Having no radio, the crew were unaware of the declaration of war and finding all of the buoys and other navigational markers missing, they attempted to pick their own way in through the Narrows, the channel that threads through thebarrier reef. This took them directly to the fore ofSt. David's Battery, where the gunners were on a war footing and opened fire. This was just a warning shot, which had the desired effect. TheShamrock IV andErin arrived the next day. The America's Cup was cancelled for that year.
In March 1917, Vanderbilt was commissioned a lieutenant (junior grade) in theUnited States Naval Reserve. When the United States entered World War I, he was called to active duty on April 9, 1917, and assigned as commanding officer of the scout patrol boatUSSPatrol No. 8 (SP-56), which operated out ofNewport, Rhode Island. He was reassigned on July 20 to command theBlock Island, Rhode Island, anti-submarine sector and on November 17 theNew London, Connecticut, sector. While at Block Island, one of his subordinates was Chief Machinist MateHarold June who would go on to serve as a pilot with Commander (later admiral)Richard E. Byrd's 1929 Antarctic Expedition. June was one of four men who were aboard the first aircraft to fly over theSouth Pole. Upon Vanderbilt's reassignment, the officers and men of the Block Island sector presented him with an engraved naval officer's sword as a token of their esteem. The sword is now displayed at theMarble House in Newport.
On July 17, 1918, he was reassigned to the US Navy forces in Europe and reported to Submarine Chaser Detachment 3 atQueenstown, Ireland, in August. He served with Detachment 3 until the unit was disbanded on November 25, 1918 – shortly after theArmistice was signed. He was placed on inactive duty December 30, 1918, and was promoted to lieutenant on February 26, 1919, retroactive to September 21, 1918. He was discharged from the Naval Reserve on March 26, 1921.[3]
As a boy, Harold Vanderbilt spent part of his summers at the Vanderbilt mansions—the Idle Hour estate in Long Island, New York, on the banks of theConnetquot River;Marble House atNewport, Rhode Island; and later atBelcourt, the Newport mansion of his stepfather,Oliver Belmont. As an adult, he pursued his interest in yachting, winning sixKing's Cups and fiveAstor Cups atregattas between 1922 and 1938. He served as commodore of theNew York Yacht Club from 1922 to 1924.[4] In 1925, he built his own luxurious vacation home atPalm Beach, Florida, that he called "El Solano". (John Lennon, formerly ofthe Beatles, purchased it[clarification needed] shortly before his1980 murder.)
Vanderbilt achieved the pinnacle ofyacht racing in 1930 by defending theAmerica's Cup in theJ-class yachtEnterprise. His victory put him on the cover of the September 15, 1930, issue ofTime magazine (see image above). In 1934 Harold faced a dangerous challenger from theUnited Kingdom,Endeavour, owned by the aviation pioneer and industrialistThomas Sopwith.Endeavour won the first two races but Vanderbilt'sRainbow then won four races in a row and successfully defended the Cup. In 1937 he won again inRanger, the last of the J-class yachts to defend the Cup. He was posthumously elected to theAmerica's Cup Hall of Fame in 1993.
In the fall of 1935, Harold began a study of the yacht racing rules with three friends:Philip Roosevelt, president of the North American Yacht Racing Union (predecessor toUS Sailing);Van Santvoord Merle-Smith, president of the Yacht Racing Association of Long Island Sound; and Henry H. Anderson. "The four men began by attempting to take the right-of-way rules as they were and amending them. After about six weeks of intensive effort, they finally concluded that they were getting exactly nowhere. It was the basic principles, not the details, that were causing the problems. They would have to start from scratch."[5]
In 1936, Vanderbilt, with assistance from the other three had developed an alternative set of rules, printed them, and mailed a copy to every yachtsman that he knew personally or by name in both the United States and England. These were virtually ignored, but a second edition in 1938 was improved, as were following versions. Vanderbilt continued to work with the various committees of the North American Yacht Racing Union until finally in 1960 the International Yacht Racing Union (predecessor to the International Sailing Federation or ISAF) adopted the rules that Vanderbilt and the Americans had developed over the previous quarter century.
Vanderbilt was also a card game enthusiast. In 1925, while on boardSSFinland, he originated changes to the scoring system through which the game ofcontract bridge supplantedauction bridge in popularity.[6] Three years later he endowed theVanderbilt Cup awarded to the winners of the North Americanteam-of-four championship (now the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, or simply "the Vanderbilt", one of theNorth American Bridge Championships marquee events). In 1932, and again in 1940, he was part of a team that won his own trophy; it remains one of the most prized in the game. Vanderbilt also donated theWorld Bridge Federation Vanderbilt Trophy, awarded from 1960 to 2004 to the winner of the open category at the quadrennialWorld Team Olympiad, and since 2008 to the winner of the corresponding event at theWorld Mind Sports Games.[7][8]
Vanderbilt invented the firststrong club system, which he called the "Club Convention" but which has since become more usually known as theVanderbilt Club.[9][10] The strong club, or forcing club, family ofbidding systems has performed exceptionally well in world championship play.[11] He wrote four books on the subject.
Vanderbilt,Ely Culbertson, andCharles Goren were the three people named whenThe Bridge World inaugurated a bridge "hall of fame" in 1964 and they were made founding members of theACBL Hall of Fame in 1995.[12][13][a]
In 1969, theWorld Bridge Federation (WBF) made Vanderbilt its first honorary member.[citation needed] In 1969, he became a WBF Honorary Member, and was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 1964.[13][14][a]In 1941, he was made ACBL Honorary Member of the Year and won the Wetzlar Trophy in 1940.
He won theNorth American Bridge Championships twice and theVanderbilt twice, the first in 1932 and the last in 1940. He was a runner-up at theNorth American Bridge Championships and during theVanderbilt in 1937.
In 1930, after a property dispute with the Town ofPalm Beach, Florida, Vanderbilt moved several miles south to an undeveloped area calledManalapan, where he purchased 500 feet of oceanfront property and built a mansion calledEastover.[15] In 1931, he filed papers to incorporate the Town of Manalapan and became the Town's first mayor, serving from 1952 until 1966. He was a town councilman for 32 years and was called "mayor emeritus" when he retired from public service.[16] In 1934, his sister,Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, built her own mansion onHypoluxo Island, across the water from Eastover.[17][18]
In addition to sailing, Vanderbilt was a licensed pilot, and in 1938 he acquired aSikorsky S-43 "Flying Boat".
At the outbreak of theSecond World War, Vanderbilt's yachtsVagrant andVara, which was under construction, were seized by the United States Navy. TheVagrant was designated as YP-258 and later as PYc-30. Navy officialEdmond J. Moran met with Vanderbilt in New York, to present him with a check for $300,000 as compensation for theVara. Upon receiving the check, Vanderbilt signed it over to theUSO, so the money could be used to benefit servicemen.[19] TheVara was completed, renamed as theUSSValiant, and designated as PC-509 (later as PYc-51).
Vanderbilt marriedGertrude Lewis Conaway, ofPhiladelphia, in 1933. They had no children.[1]
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt died two days before his 86th birthday on July 4, 1970.[1] Ironically, this was only two weeks after thePenn Central Railroad, successor to the New York Central Railroad, had declared bankruptcy (on June 21, 1970). He and his wife are interred at Saint Mary's Episcopal Cemetery inPortsmouth, Rhode Island, their graves marked with only simple flat stones. It is uncertain why he chose to be buried in Rhode Island rather than in the Vanderbilt family mausoleum on Staten Island. It is noteworthy, however, that he is buried in the same cemetery as his business rivalRobert R. Young.
Harold Vanderbilt had a keen interest in the success ofVanderbilt University inNashville, Tennessee, founded in 1873 through the financial sponsorship of his great-grandfather. A longtime member of the university's Board of Trust, he served as its president between 1955 and 1968.[20] He helped guide the institution through a time in history when racial integration of the student body was a divisive and explosive issue. In 1962, Vanderbilt attended one of the first meetings of the Vanderbilt Sailing Club and provided funding for the club to purchase its first fleet of dinghies,Penguins. The university annually offers several scholarships named in his honor, and on the grounds in front of Buttrick Hall, an approximately sixteen foot tall statue of Vanderbilt, designed by sculptorJoseph Kiselewski,[21] was erected in his honor in 1965.[20][22]
In 1947, Vanderbilt was invested as an honoraryCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) byKing George VI. The letters patent conferring the honor on him (signed byQueen Mary in her capacity as grand master of the order) and the insignia of the order are on display in the Trophy Room at theMarble House summer estate inNewport, Rhode Island.
In 1963, Vanderbilt assisted thePreservation Society of Newport County in acquiringMarble House inNewport, Rhode Island, which his mother had sold more than 30 years earlier. Their bid was successful, and the property was converted into a museum that has been open to the public since the mid-1960s and holds documents and artifacts related to his life.
A sailing drink,Stirling Punch, was named in Vanderbilt's honor.[23]
Vanderbilt's private railroad car, New York Central 3, was renovated and has operated luxury charter trips at the rear of regularly scheduledAmtrak andVia Rail Canada trains.[24]
Vanderbilt was inducted into theNational Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011.[25] He was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2014.
Following his death, contemporary newspapers reported that his Will dispersed his estate amongst many Charities and Universities, including over $40,000,000 to Vanderbilt University and $6,600,000 to Harvard University.[26]
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