- Thomas W. Lamont
Thomas William Lamont, Jr. (
September 30 1870 –February 2 1948 ) was an Americanbanker .Lamont was born in
Claverack, New York . He graduated fromPhillips Exeter Academy in 1888 and earned his degree fromHarvard University in 1892. He became a generous benefactor of the school once he had amassed a fortune, notably funding the building of Lamont Library. After 1910, he became a partner ofJ.P. Morgan & Co. , and served as a U.S. financial advisor abroad in the 1920s and 1930s. During the 1919 Paris negotiations leading up to theTreaty of Versailles , Lamont was selected as one of two representatives of theUnited States Department of the Treasury on the American delegation.Lamont later undertook a semiofficial mission to Japan in 1920 to protect American financial issues in Asia. He however did not aggressively challenge Japanese efforts to build a sphere of influence in
Manchuria ( [http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amdipl_12/kilgroe_foot.html] ).In 1926, Lamont, self-described as ‘something like a missionary’ for
Italian fascism ( [http://www.zmag.org/Chomsky/dd/dd-c01-s11.html] ), secured a $100 million loan forBenito Mussolini ( [http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/morgan.html] ).On Black Tuesday in 1929, he was acting head of J.P. Morgan & Co. He tried to inject confidence back into the
stock market through massive purchases ofblue chip stocks. Following the reorganization of J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1943, Lamont was electedchairman of the board of directors.At the end of
World War II , he made a very substantial donation toward restoringCanterbury Cathedral inEngland . His widow, Florence Haskell Corliss (whom he had married onOctober 31 1895 ) donated Torrey Cliff, their weekend residence overlooking theHudson River inPalisades, New York , toColumbia University . It is now the site of theLamont-Doherty Earth Observatory .Lamont died in
Boca Grande, Florida . His son, Corliss, was a philosophy professor atColumbia University and an avowedsocialist . Another son, Thomas Stilwell Lamont, was later vice-chairman of Morgan Guaranty Trust and a fellow of theHarvard Corporation . [cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE1D61E3CF93AA25755C0A96E948260
title=T. S. Lamont 2d And Bobbi Silber Exchange Vows
publisher=The New York Times
date=June 19 ,1988
accessdate=2006-08-10] His great-grandson,Ned Lamont , was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate fromConnecticut in 2006.Trivia
*Commuted to
Wall Street byyacht .*A
Great Lakes steamer named for him was launched in 1930.References
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