Marcellus Hartley Dodge Sr. | |
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 A bronze plaque of Dodge | |
| Born | Marcellus Hartley Dodge (1881-02-28)February 28, 1881 New Jersey, US |
| Died | December 25, 1963(1963-12-25) (aged 82) Giralda Farms, New Jersey, US |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Owner and chairman of theRemington Arms Company |
| Spouse | Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge |
| Children | Marcellus Hartley Dodge Jr. |
Marcellus Hartley Dodge Sr. (February 28, 1881 – December 25, 1963) was an American CEO and philanthropist. He was the chairman of the board ofRemington Arms Company and a member of the family associated with thePhelps Dodge Corporation. He was the president or director of several companies and the president ofYMCA in the United States. He was a well-knownphilanthropist with significant donations to many institutions and organizations and he was a major contributor to the successful efforts to protect theGreat Swamp.[1]
He was born on February 28, 1881, to Emma Hartley, who died from complication of childbirth on March 3, 1881, andNorman White Dodge.[2]
His paternal grandfather wasWilliam E. Dodge Sr., anabolitionist, but also a partner at Phelps, Dodge, a company that exported cotton from the deep south to Liverpool, England. Phelps, Dodge was also in the business of importing copper from England and diversified into mining and smelting. He was a promoter of the rights ofNative Americans who served as the president of theNational Temperance Society from 1865 to 1883, represented the New York 8th congressional district in theUnited States Congress for a portion of the 39th United States Congress in 1866-67, and was a founding member ofYMCA in the United States. He had marriedMelissa Phelps (1809-1903), the daughter ofAnson Greene Phelps andOlivia Egleston and in 1833, William E. Dodge and his father-in-law founded the mining firm Phelps, Dodge, and Company, one of America's foremost mining companies.
His maternal grandfather wasMarcellus Hartley, a merchant and financier ofManhattan. His grandfather had provided a home on Thirty-seventh Street adjoining his on Madison Avenue for his daughter, Emma, as a wedding present when she had married Norman W. Dodge on May 6, 1880. Emma died on March 3, 1881, a few days after the birth of her son.[3] Several years after the death of his mother, his father remarried on January 5, 1897,[4][5] and Marcellus was raised by his maternal grandparents.[6] Marcellus Hartley died in 1902 and left his grandson as heir to $60 million (approximately $2,180,538,000 today) at the age of twenty-one, while he was attendingColumbia University and living with his grandmother,Frances Chester Hartley, at 282Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
In 1903, Dodge was graduated fromColumbia University, where he was president of his class, manager of thetrack team, andcoxswain of his classcrew (sometimes referred to ascollege rowing).
Upon his graduation, he and his maternal aunt,Helen Hartley Jenkins (Mrs. George W. Jenkins), presented theHartley Hall dormitory to Columbia. The building became Columbia's largest dormitory and created more of a college atmosphere for the new campus inMorningside Heights.
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Well known in society and an avidyachtsman, on July 11, 1906, Dodge took a party of his friends on theWakiva I, his large pleasure and cruising yacht, on a month-long tour to the upper waters of theAmazon River, theOrinoco inVenezuela andColombia,the Guianas:British Guiana,Surinam, andFrench Guiana. They visited many locations in the Caribbean,[7] includingCuba where they toured the battle fields of recent armed rebellion before returning toTampa. His guests included Nicholas Crosby, international law authorityJohn Bassett Moore, historian H. A. Cushing, Everitt Dominick, Eugene Delano Jr., cartographer and historianWilliam Robert Shepherd, J. R. Thompson, and Dr. James R. Cannon. Photographs and some remembrances of the trip by Eugene Delano were published in the Yale Courant, Volume 43 May 1907, pages 686–693, under the title,Les Iles du Salut.
In 1907, Dodge became engaged and married to(Ethel) Geraldine Rockefeller of 689Fifth Avenue. She was a child ofWilliam and Almira Geraldine Goodsell Rockefeller, and was estimated to have her own fortune of more than 100 million dollars. They were said to be the wealthiest newlyweds in the country when they married. Initially, when they resided in New Jersey, they lived together atHartley Farms, a country estate in New Vernon purchased by Marcellus and his aunt, Helen Hartley Jenkins, in 1904.
Soon, they bought all of the land between two estates held by his family inMorris County, New Jersey, that lay between Spring Valley Road in the community ofNew Vernon and Madison Avenue inMadison. Most of the area is part of the Harding Township area that extends fromChatham toMorristown. The last portion purchased, that had belonged toCharles W. Harkness, the third largest stockholder ofStandard Oil shares, namedGiralda Farms, was purchased by Geraldine in 1923. She maintained it as a grand country estate among the rolling hills.
Eventually, they resided separately on the adjoining estates. He preferred the New Jersey setting and maintained his residence in New Vernon throughout his life, but his wife regularly stayed in her Manhattan residence for two or three days each week.
Dodge expanded the house at "Hartley Farms", which initially had been used as a country retreat associated with his family's charitable organization,"Hartley House" in Manhattan. After it became his residence, he added two wings and some interior enhancements to the house as well as secondary living quarters, barns, stables, and a polo field. The property has been preserved with aconservation easement and his residence has been listed on theNational Register of Historic Places. At one timeHartley Farms extended for a thousand acres (4 km2).
They had one child,Marcellus Hartley Dodge Jr., who died in an automobile crash inMogesca,France in 1930.[8] His mother built an extensive memorial to him as a civic center in Madison along with the train station she built opposite the center. They also donated a structure on the campus ofPrinceton University, from which their son had been graduated shortly before his death.
At the time of his marriage, Dodge was the president and a director of theUnion Metallic Cartridge Company, president of theBridgeport Gun Implement Company, director of theEquitable Trust Company, director ofInternational Banking Company, director ofM. Hartley Company, a member of theLawyers Club of New York City, theEssex County Country Club, and theCity of New York Club.
An accomplishedequestrian, Dodge also founded theSpring Valley Hounds, a hunt club that not only conducted hunts for their members among the many estates nearby, but also held a major annualhorse show in New Jersey. Competitions included those for hunters and open jumpers, as well as for saddle horses of three and five gaits. Many of the competitors followed the international horse show circuit that closed its season with the November exhibition atMadison Square Garden on Fiftieth Street and Eighth Avenue inManhattan each year. Nearby, theUnited States Equestrian Team formed for theOlympics from these ranks in 1950, it was founded just off of Spring Valley Road, on van Beuren Road at the Coates estate.
Eventually, Dodge became the chairman ofRemington Arms Company, taking the place of his maternal grandfather. The Remington Arms and Union Metallic Cartridge factories at Bridgeport, Connecticut were described as the greatest small arms and ammunition plant in the world by the editor of theNew York Times in 1916.[9] Cash control of the company was acquired byE. I. du Pont de Nemours Company ofWilmington, Delaware, in 1933, but Dodge remained at the head of the business.
Following the business tradition established by his grandfather at the time of theAmerican Civil War, his company was the supplier of sixty-nine percent of thearms,ammunition, andmunitions being used by the federal government during theSecond World War. Secret meetings about this were held on his country estate,Hartley Farms, at hispolo fields which, except for the war years, were also used from 1927 as the site of the exhibition of theMorris and Essex Dog Show held by his wife, Geraldine. During these meetings GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower and he became close friends.
He was a member of the board of trustees ofColumbia University, hisalma mater and made many donations to the university.[10] He was the founder of the Marcellus Hartley Dodge Cup that is awarded in crew. The Marcellus Hartley Dodge Award is bestowed in his honor.[11] A bronze plaque dedicated to Dodge and bearing his likeness is displayed at the university.
When the remnants ofGlacial Lake Passaic, theGreat Swamp that abutted Dodge's estate, was targeted for development as an airport by thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey, nearby citizens formed theJersey Jetport Site Association in 1959 to protect it by purchasing properties to assemble for donation to the government as a federal park. Dodge, being close to the area and fiscally capable, joined their efforts.
Dodge was one of the first trustees of theNorth American Wildlife Foundation that completed the acquisition of enough of the Great Swamp to protect the massive natural resource. Legislation was introduced that was championed byStewart L. Udall while he was a congressman from Arizona. It was passed on November 3, 1960, protecting the important natural resource. In 1964 the park was dedicated by Udall, who had becomeSecretary of the Interior to presidentJohn F. Kennedy and continued in the same role underLyndon B. Johnson.[12][13]
TheGreat Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was dedicated in 1968. It was named the M. Hartley Dodge Wildlife Refuge,[1] in honor of his son.
Dodge died onChristmas Day, December 25, 1963, atGiralda Farms inMadison, New Jersey.[1]
InThe New York Times, Dodge was described as an outstanding citizen, remembered above all for the warmth and generosity of his personality. He was a well-knownphilanthropist. Beginning with a donation of fountains on the plaza beforeLow Memorial Library and a residence building for students in 1903,Hartley Hall, that he and his aunt,Helen Hartley Jenkins, donated, he provided many gifts to Columbia University[2], and numerous other institutions and organizations. After his death his family and estate underwrote the construction of Dodge Physical Fitness Center at Columbia, and the university renamed another of its buildings Dodge Hall in his honor.
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