Maurice Wertheim | |
|---|---|
 Wertheim in 1922 | |
| Born | (1886-02-16)February 16, 1886 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | May 27, 1950(1950-05-27) (aged 64) Cos Cob, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Organization | Wertheim & Co. |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Josephine (1910−1980) Barbara (1912−1989) Anne (1914−1996) |
| Family | Rafe Pomerance (grandson) Jessica Mathews (granddaughter) |
Maurice Wertheim (February 16, 1886 – May 27, 1950) was an Americaninvestment banker,chess player and patron, art collector,environmentalist, andphilanthropist. In 1927 he foundedWertheim & Co.
Born to a Jewish family,[1] the son of Jacob Wertheim ofHartford, Connecticut, and his wife, Hannah Frank ofHoboken, New Jersey, Wertheim was educated at theSachs School in New York City. He then graduated fromHarvard University in 1906 with aB.A. and received hisM.A. in 1907. In his freshman year, he lived inMatthews Hall inHarvard Yard.[2] He began work at his father's firm, theUnited Cigar Manufacturers Company. He would later inherit nearly half a million dollars from his father, due to his success with the company. In 1915, he entered into a career as aninvestment banker in New York, and four years later would become a firm partner ofHallgarten & Company. He founded his own firmWertheim & Company in 1927, developing a very successful business inmergers and acquisitions, and becoming wealthy in the process. DuringWorld War II, he served as adollar-a-year man on theWar Production Board in theadministration of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.[3]
Wertheim served on various boards and as a trustee for various organizations. He was trustee of theFederation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York,Mount Sinai Hospital, andThe Nation. He served as president of theAmerican Jewish Committee in 1941–1943.[4]
Wertheim was an amateur chess player and patron of the game. He served as the president of theManhattan Chess Club, which he assisted financially and took an avid interest in playingcorrespondence chess. He financed the 1941U.S. Chess Championship match betweenSamuel Reshevsky andI.A. Horowitz, which was won by Reshevsky.
Wertheim financed the American participation in theUS vs. USSR radio chess match 1945, across ten boards, personally covering travel, site, and broadcast costs.[5]
Wertheim conceived of the idea for the 1946 chess match between the United States and theSoviet Union inMoscow, and persuaded theU.S. State Department that it would make a difference in thawing theCold War. He paid for all the costs, and personally led the team at the tournament.[6]
He was also actively interested in art, fishing, nature conservancy, and theater. He was an active supporter of theNew York Theatre Guild, where he later served as director overseeing the Guild's operations. He acquired 1,800 acres (7.3 km2) of land along theCarmans River on easternLong Island for personal use to conservewaterfowl and forhunting. In 1947, Wertheim and his then wife, Cecile, donated the entire stretch of land to the United States government for "the American people"; the land would eventually become known as theWertheim National Wildlife Refuge.
Wertheim amassed a notable collection ofImpressionist andPost-Impressionist works that contained many famous masterpieces, including paintings and sculptures byPaul Cézanne,Edgar Degas,Édouard Manet,Henri Matisse,Pablo Picasso, andVincent van Gogh.[7] In his will, he arranged for the donation of his collection of French Impressionist paintings to theFogg Art Museum atHarvard University.[8]
After his death from a heart attack in 1950, a memorial Maurice Wertheim chess tournament was organized in 1951 in New York in his memory; it was won bySamuel Reshevsky. In 1963, Wertheim's daughter, Barbara, established the Wertheim Study Room in theNew York Public Library in honor of her father.[9]
In 1909, he married Alma Morgenthau,[10] daughter ofHenry Morgenthau Sr.[11] They had three daughters, Josephine Wertheim Pomerance (b. 1910), mother ofRafe Pomerance; historianBarbara W. Tuchman (1912–1989), mother ofJessica Mathews; andAnne Rebe Wertheim Werner (1914–1996), previously married toRobert E. Simon.[10][12][13][14]
Alma herself had her own philanthropic interests and, in 1923, was one of the founding members of the League of Composers, also subsidizing its journal,Modern Music, with 1500 annually.[15] She also collected work byGeorgia O'Keeffe,[16] and, together, the couple supported the Intimate Gallery.[17] They divorced in 1929.
Following their divorce, Alma founded and supportedCos Cob Press (eventually bought byBoosey and Hawkes) in 1929 to publish works of contemporary American composers.[18] In 1934 she marriedPaul Lester Wiener (they divorced in the 1940s)[18][11] and she died in 1953.
Wertheim married Ruth White in March 1930; they did not have children and divorced in 1935 (she remarriedAlexander Smallens in 1935).[19] He was married for a third time in 1944 to Cecile Berlage, who was his spouse until his death; they did not have children.
Wertheim's granddaughter, Betsy Ann Langman, was married to film producerBudd Schulberg.[20] His granddaughter, Lynn Langman married attorney and philanthropist,Philip H. Lilienthal, in 1963.[21]
The Jewish businessman's personal interests ranged from philanthropy to nature conservancy, and Wertheim was an extremely passionate chess player
She was married three times and had taken the surname of her last husband, Prof. Walter Werner, while keeping her pen name. He died in 1986. Her previous marriages, to Dr. Louis Langman andRobert E. Simon, ended in divorce
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
