Cornelius Vander Starr

Cornelius Van der Starr
Born	October 15, 1892 Fort Bragg, California
Died	December 20, 1968
Nationality	United States
Other names	Neil Starr
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Founder of AIG

Cornelius Van der Starr also known as Neil Starr or CV Starr (October 15, 1892 – December 20, 1968) was an American businessman and Office of Strategic Services operative who founded the American International Group (AIG) insurance corporation and a major philanthropic foundation.

Early life

Starr was born in Fort Bragg, California with the name Neil Starr, where his Dutch father was a railroad engineer.^[1] He began his first business, selling ice cream, at the age of nineteen, and became a student at the University of California, Berkeley.^[2] In 1910, he moved to San Francisco, where he sold auto insurance by day while studying for the California bar exam, which he passed in 1913.^[3]

He joined the U.S. Army in 1918 but was not sent overseas. Instead, he joined the Pacific Mail Steamship Company as a clerk in Yokohama, Japan. Later that year, he traveled to Shanghai where he worked for several insurance businesses.

AIG

In 1919 he founded AIG in Shanghai, then known as "American Asiatic Underwriters" (later "American International Underwriters"). His first employee, and office boy, was Sir Edwin Manton, who eventually became Chairman of A.I.U. and Executive Vice-President of AIG. Eventually, he hired Maurice "Hank" Greenberg's father as his driver, saw exceptional promise in the young man, paid for his education, and hired him as a trainee. It has been reported that he worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II while in China.^[4] One interesting point is that, after the war, he hired O.S.S. captain Duncan Lee, a lawyer, who was the long-term General Counsel of AIG. AIG left China in early 1949, as Mao Zedong led the advance of the Communist People's Liberation Army on Shanghai,^[5][6] and Starr moved the company headquarters to its current home in New York City.^[7] AIG was once the world's largest insurance company, and the sixth-largest company in the United States according to the 2007 Forbes Global 2000 list.

Legacy

In 1955 he founded the C. V. Starr Foundation, to which he left his residuary estate, after a special bequest in the eight figures and his house in Brewster to his niece, on his death in 1968. The C. V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University was named for Starr in recognition of an endowment gift by the Starr Foundation in 1981. The C. V. Starr East Asian Library at the University of California, Berkeley was completed and dedicated in October 2007.^[8] C.V. Starr Hall at Hofstra University is named in his honor in recognition of his philanthropic work. The C. V. Starr Community Center in Fort Bragg California is named for him.^[9] A double black diamond run at Stowe Mountain Resort is named for him.

Starr is the great-uncle of lawyer and former solicitor general Kenneth Starr, who was the Independent Counsel appointed to investigate the Whitewater controversy.^[10]

References

1. ^ Ronald Kent Shelp, Al Ehrbar (2006). Fallen giant: the amazing story of Hank Greenberg and the history of AIG. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 9780471916963. 
2. ^ "C.V. Starr East Asian Library to open March 17". http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/03/14_cvstarr.shtml. 
3. ^ Joseph Charles Kiger (2008). Philanthropists and foundation globalization. Transaction Publishers. p. 107. ISBN 9781412806732. http://books.google.com/books?id=03rGThoNgtcC&pg=PA107. 
4. ^ David Stafford (2000). Roosevelt and Churchill: men of secrets. Overlook Press. p. 260. ISBN 978-1585670680. http://books.google.com/books?id=rW4TAQAAIAAJ. 
5. ^ Thompson, Clifford; Block, Maxine; Moritz, Charles; Rothe, Anna Herthe; Candee, Marjorie Dent (1941). Current Biography Yearbook. Current Biography (60th ed.). H. W. Wilson Company. p. 247. http://books.google.com/books?id=P4oYAAAAIAAJ&q=%22AIG+abandoned+China+completely+in+1949%22&pgis=1. Retrieved 2009-03-17. "AIG abandoned China completely in 1949, as the Communist People's Liberation Army, led by Mao Zedong, advanced on Shanghai." 
6. ^ "Foreign Office Files for China, 1949-1976". Part 1: Complete Files for 1949: Publisher's Note. Adam Matthew Publications. http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/digital_guides/fo_china_part_1/Publishers-Note.aspx. Retrieved 2009-03-17. "By the spring of 1949 [the Communists] had captured Peking, the former Nationalist capital city of Nanking and the important trading city of Shanghai." 
7. ^ "AIG: What does this US giant do?". BBC News. 17 September 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7621574.stm. Retrieved 2009-03-17. "In 1949 [Cornelius Vander Starr] moved the company's headquarters to New York where it remains today." 
8. ^ John King (March 17, 2008). "Asian library is among best new buildings". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/17/MNOHVJCT2.DTL. 
9. ^ "Starr Community Center". official web site. Mendocino Coast Recreation & Park District. http://www.mendocoastrec.org/aquatic_center-newsnav.html. Retrieved 2009-08-31. 
10. ^ Leonard, Andrew (11 December 2006). "Sold! Dubai Ports World's chunk of the red, white and blue". Salon. http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2006/12/11/dubai3/print.html. Retrieved 2009-08-31. 

External links

• The Starr Foundation For information about Cornelius Vander Starr.
• C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience

Persondata
Name	Starr, Cornelius Vander
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 15, 1892
Place of birth	Fort Bragg, California
Date of death	December 20, 1968
Place of death