- William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891 - July 26, 1986) was an American Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat. The son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman, he served as Secretary of Commerce under President Harry S. Truman and later as the 48th Governor of New York. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952 and 1956, as well as a core member of the group of foreign policy elders known as "The Wise Men".
While attending Groton School and Yale University, where he joined Skull and Bones, he made contacts that let to creation of a banking firm that eventually merged into Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.. He owned parts of various other companies, including Union Pacific Railroad, Merchant Shipping Corporation, and Polaroid Corporation. During the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harriman served in the National Recovery Administration and on the Business Advisory Council before moving into foreign policy roles. After helping to coordinate the Lend-Lease program, Harriman served as the ambassador to the Soviet Union and attended the major World War II conferences. After the war, he became a prominent advocate of George F. Kennan's policy of containment. He also served as Secretary of Commerce, and coordinated the implementation of the Marshall Plan.
In 1954, Harriman defeated Republican Senator Irving Ives to become the Governor of New York. He served a single term before his defeat by Nelson Rockefeller in the 1958 election. Harriman unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination at the 1952 Democratic National Convention and the 1956 Democratic National Convention. Though Harriman had Truman's backing at the 1956 convention, the Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson II in both elections.
After his gubernatorial defeat, Harriman became a widely respected foreign policy elder within the Democratic Party. He helped negotiate the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty during President John F. Kennedy's administration and was deeply involved in the Vietnam War during the Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. After Johnson left office in 1969, Harriman affiliated with various organization, including the Club of Rome and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Better known as Averell Harriman, he was born in New York City, the son of railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman and Mary Williamson Averell. He was the brother of E. Roland Harriman and Mary Harriman Rumsey. Harriman was a close friend of Hall Roosevelt, the brother of Eleanor Roosevelt.
During the summer of 1899, Harriman's father organized the Harriman Alaska Expedition, a philanthropic-scientific survey of coastal Alaska and Russia that attracted 25 of the leading scientific, naturalist, and artist luminaries of the day, including John Muir, John Burroughs, George Bird Grinnell, C. Hart Merriam, Grove Karl Gilbert, and Edward Curtis, along with 100 family members and staff, aboard the steamship George Elder. Young Harriman would have his first introduction to Russia, a nation on which he would spend a significant amount of attention in his later life in public service.
He attended Groton School in Massachusetts before going on to Yale where he joined the Skull and Bones society. He graduated in 1913. After graduating, he inherited the largest fortune in America and became Yale's youngest Crew coach.
Using money from his father he established W.A. Harriman & Co banking business in 1922. In 1927 his brother Roland joined the business and the name was changed to Harriman Brothers & Company. In 1931, it merged with Brown Bros. & Co. to create the highly successful Wall Street firm Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Notable employees included George Herbert Walker and his son-in-law Prescott Bush.
Harriman's main properties included Brown Brothers & Harriman & Co, Union Pacific Railroad, Merchant Shipping Corporation, and venture capital investments that included the Polaroid Corporation. Harriman's associated properties included the Southern Pacific Railroad (including the Central Pacific Railroad), Illinois Central Railroad, Wells Fargo & Co., the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., American Ship & Commerce, Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktiengesellschaft (HAPAG), the American Hawaiian Steamship Co., United American Lines, the Guaranty Trust Company, and the Union Banking Corporation.
He served as Chairman of The Business Council, then known as the Business Advisory Council for the United States Department of Commerce in 1937 and 1939.
Harriman's older sister, Mary Rumsey, encouraged Averell to leave his finance job and work with her and their friends, the Roosevelts, to advance the goals of the New Deal. Averell joined the NRA National Recovery Administration, the first government consumer rights group, marking the beginning of his political career.
Following the death of August Belmont, Jr., in 1924, Harriman, George Walker, and Joseph E. Widener purchased much of Belmont's thoroughbred breeding stock. Harriman raced under the name of Arden Farms. Among his horses, Chance Play won the 1927 Jockey Club Gold Cup. He also raced in partnership with Walker under the name Log Cabin Stable before buying him out. U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Louis Feustel, trainer of Man o' War, trained the Log Cabin horses until 1926. Of the partnership's successful runners purchased from the August Belmont estate, Ladkin is best remembered for defeating the European star Epinard in the International Special.
Harriman's banking business was the main Wall Street connection for German companies and the varied U.S. financial interests of Fritz Thyssen; who was a financial backer of the Nazi party until 1938. The Trading With the Enemy Act (enacted on October 6, 1917) classified any business transactions for profit with enemy nations as illegal, and any funds or assets involved were subject to seizure by the U.S. government. The declaration of war on the U.S. by Hitler led to the U.S. government order on October 20, 1942 to seize German interests in the U.S. which included Harriman's operations in New York City. The assets were held by the government for the duration of the war, then returned afterward; UBC was dissolved in 1951.
Beginning in the spring of 1941, Harriman served President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a special envoy to Europe and helped coordinate the Lend-Lease program. He was present at the meeting between FDR and Winston Churchill at Placentia Bay, in August 1941, which yielded the Atlantic Charter, a common declaration of principles of the United States and the UK. He was subsequently dispatched to Moscow to negotiate the terms of the Lend-Lease agreement with the Soviet Union. His promise of $1 billion in aid technically exceeded his brief. Determined to win over the doubtful American public, he used his own funds to purchase time on CBS radio to explain the program in terms of enlightened self-interest. This skepticism lifted with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Harriman received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with Distinction, in 1969 and West Point's Sylvanus Thayer Award in 1975. Furthermore, in 1983 he received the Freedom Medal. Harriman was appointed senior member of the US Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly's Special Session on Disarmament in 1978. He was also a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy Charter, Club of Rome, Council on Foreign Relations, Knights of Pythias, Skull and Bones Society, Psi Upsilon Fraternity, and the Jupiter Island Club.
Harriman served as ambassador to the Soviet Union until January 1946. When he returned to the United States, he worked hard to get George Kennan's Long Telegram into wide distribution. Kennan's analysis, which generally lined up with Harriman's, became the cornerstone of Truman's Cold War strategy of containment.
From April to October 1946, he was ambassador to Britain, but he was soon appointed to become United States Secretary of Commerce under President Harry S. Truman to replace Henry A. Wallace, a critic of Truman's foreign policies. In 1948, he was put in charge of the Marshall Plan. In Paris, he became friendly with the CIA agent Irving Brown, who organised anti-communist unions and organisations. Harriman was then sent to Tehran in July 1951 to mediate between Iran and Britain in the wake of the Iranian nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
His first marriage, two years after graduating from Yale, was to Kitty Lanier Lawrence. Lawrence was the great-granddaughter of James Lanier, a co-founder of Winslow, Lanier & Co., and the granddaughter of Charles D. Lanier (1837-1926), a close friend of Pierpont Morgan Before their divorce in 1928, and her death in 1936, Harriman and Lawrence had two daughters together:
Mary Averell Harriman (1917-1996), who married Dr. Shirley C. Fisk
Kathleen Lanier Harriman (1917-2011), who married Stanley Grafton Mortimer Jr. (1913-1999), who had previously been married to socialite Babe Paley (1915-1978)
About a year after his divorce from Lawrence, he married Marie Norton Whitney (1903-1970), who had left her husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, to marry him. On their honeymoon in Europe, they purchased oil paintings by Van Gogh, Degas, Cézanne, Picasso, and Renoir. She and her husband later donated many of the works she bought and collected, including those of the artist Walt Kuhn, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. They remained married until her death on September 26, 1970, at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
In 1971, he married for the third and final time to Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward (1920-1997), the former wife of Winston Churchill's son Randolph, and widow of Broadway producer Leland Hayward. In 1993, she became the 58th United States Ambassador to France.
Harriman died on July 26, 1986 in Yorktown Heights, New York, at the age of 94. Averell and Pamela Harriman are buried at the Arden Farm Graveyard in Arden, New York.William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891 - July 26, 1986) was an Am erican Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat. The son of ra ilroad baron E. H. Harriman, he served as Secretary of Commerce unde r President Harry S. Truman and later as the 48th Governor of New York . He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 195 2 and 1956, as well as a core member of the group of foreign policy el ders known as "The Wise Men".
While attending Groton School and Yale University, where he joined Sku ll and Bones, he made contacts that let to creation of a banking fir m that eventually merged into Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.. He owne d parts of various other companies, including Union Pacific Railroad , Merchant Shipping Corporation, and Polaroid Corporation. During th e presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harriman served in the Nationa l Recovery Administration and on the Business Advisory Council befor e moving into foreign policy roles. After helping to coordinate the Le nd-Lease program, Harriman served as the ambassador to the Soviet Unio n and attended the major World War II conferences. After the war, he b ecame a prominent advocate of George F. Kennan's policy of containment . He also served as Secretary of Commerce, and coordinated the impleme ntation of the Marshall Plan.
In 1954, Harriman defeated Republican Senator Irving Ives to become th e Governor of New York. He served a single term before his defeat by N elson Rockefeller in the 1958 election. Harriman unsuccessfully sough t the presidential nomination at the 1952 Democratic National Conventi on and the 1956 Democratic National Convention. Though Harriman had Tr uman's backing at the 1956 convention, the Democrats nominated Adlai S tevenson II in both elections.
After his gubernatorial defeat, Harriman became a widely respected for eign policy elder within the Democratic Party. He helped negotiate th e Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty during President John F. Kennedy's a dministration and was deeply involved in the Vietnam War during the Ke nnedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. After Johnson left offic e in 1969, Harriman affiliated with various organization, including th e Club of Rome and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Better known as Averell Harriman, he was born in New York City, the so n of railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman and Mary Williamson Averell . He was the brother of E. Roland Harriman and Mary Harriman Rumsey. H arriman was a close friend of Hall Roosevelt, the brother of Eleanor R oosevelt.
During the summer of 1899, Harriman's father organized the Harriman Al aska Expedition, a philanthropic-scientific survey of coastal Alaska a nd Russia that attracted 25 of the leading scientific, naturalist, an d artist luminaries of the day, including John Muir, John Burroughs, G eorge Bird Grinnell, C. Hart Merriam, Grove Karl Gilbert, and Edward C urtis, along with 100 family members and staff, aboard the steamship G eorge Elder. Young Harriman would have his first introduction to Russi a, a nation on which he would spend a significant amount of attentio n in his later life in public service.
He attended Groton School in Massachusetts before going on to Yale whe re he joined the Skull and Bones society. He graduated in 1913. Afte r graduating, he inherited the largest fortune in America and became Y ale's youngest Crew coach.
Using money from his father he established W.A. Harriman & Co bankin g business in 1922. In 1927 his brother Roland joined the business an d the name was changed to Harriman Brothers & Company. In 1931, it mer ged with Brown Bros. & Co. to create the highly successful Wall Stree t firm Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Notable employees included Georg e Herbert Walker and his son-in-law Prescott Bush.
Harriman's main properties included Brown Brothers & Harriman & Co, Un ion Pacific Railroad, Merchant Shipping Corporation, and venture capit al investments that included the Polaroid Corporation. Harriman's asso ciated properties included the Southern Pacific Railroad (including th e Central Pacific Railroad), Illinois Central Railroad, Wells Farg o & Co., the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., American Ship & Commerce, Ham burg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktiengesellschaft (HAPAG), the America n Hawaiian Steamship Co., United American Lines, the Guaranty Trust Co mpany, and the Union Banking Corporation.
He served as Chairman of The Business Council, then known as the Busin ess Advisory Council for the United States Department of Commerce in 1 937 and 1939.
Harriman's older sister, Mary Rumsey, encouraged Averell to leave hi s finance job and work with her and their friends, the Roosevelts, t o advance the goals of the New Deal. Averell joined the NRA National R ecovery Administration, the first government consumer rights group, ma rking the beginning of his political career.
Following the death of August Belmont, Jr., in 1924, Harriman, Georg e Walker, and Joseph E. Widener purchased much of Belmont's thoroughbr ed breeding stock. Harriman raced under the name of Arden Farms. Amon g his horses, Chance Play won the 1927 Jockey Club Gold Cup. He also r aced in partnership with Walker under the name Log Cabin Stable befor e buying him out. U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Louis Feustel, tra iner of Man o' War, trained the Log Cabin horses until 1926. Of the pa rtnership's successful runners purchased from the August Belmont estat e, Ladkin is best remembered for defeating the European star Epinard i n the International Special.
Harriman's banking business was the main Wall Street connection for Ge rman companies and the varied U.S. financial interests of Fritz Thysse n; who was a financial backer of the Nazi party until 1938. The Tradin g With the Enemy Act (enacted on October 6, 1917) classified any busin ess transactions for profit with enemy nations as illegal, and any fun ds or assets involved were subject to seizure by the U.S. government . The declaration of war on the U.S. by Hitler led to the U.S. governm ent order on October 20, 1942 to seize German interests in the U.S. wh ich included Harriman's operations in New York City. The assets were h eld by the government for the duration of the war, then returned after ward; UBC was dissolved in 1951.
Beginning in the spring of 1941, Harriman served President Franklin D . Roosevelt as a special envoy to Europe and helped coordinate the Len d-Lease program. He was present at the meeting between FDR and Winsto n Churchill at Placentia Bay, in August 1941, which yielded the Atlant ic Charter, a common declaration of principles of the United States an d the UK. He was subsequently dispatched to Moscow to negotiate the te rms of the Lend-Lease agreement with the Soviet Union. His promise o f $1 billion in aid technically exceeded his brief. Determined to wi n over the doubtful American public, he used his own funds to purchas e time on CBS radio to explain the program in terms of enlightened sel f-interest. This skepticism lifted with the Japanese attack on Pearl H arbor.
Harriman received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with Distinction , in 1969 and West Point's Sylvanus Thayer Award in 1975. Furthermore , in 1983 he received the Freedom Medal. Harriman was appointed senio r member of the US Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly' s Special Session on Disarmament in 1978. He was also a member of th e American Academy of Diplomacy Charter, Club of Rome, Council on Fore ign Relations, Knights of Pythias, Skull and Bones Society, Psi Upsilo n Fraternity, and the Jupiter Island Club.
Harriman served as ambassador to the Soviet Union until January 1946 . When he returned to the United States, he worked hard to get Georg e Kennan's Long Telegram into wide distribution. Kennan's analysis, wh ich generally lined up with Harriman's, became the cornerstone of Trum an's Cold War strategy of containment.
From April to October 1946, he was ambassador to Britain, but he was s oon appointed to become United States Secretary of Commerce under Pres ident Harry S. Truman to replace Henry A. Wallace, a critic of Truman' s foreign policies. In 1948, he was put in charge of the Marshall Plan . In Paris, he became friendly with the CIA agent Irving Brown, who or ganised anti-communist unions and organisations. Harriman was then sen t to Tehran in July 1951 to mediate between Iran and Britain in the wa ke of the Iranian nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
His first marriage, two years after graduating from Yale, was to Kitt y Lanier Lawrence. Lawrence was the great-granddaughter of James Lanie r, a co-founder of Winslow, Lanier & Co., and the granddaughter of Cha rles D. Lanier (1837-1926), a close friend of Pierpont Morgan Before t heir divorce in 1928, and her death in 1936, Harriman and Lawrence ha d two daughters together:
Mary Averell Harriman (1917-1996), who married Dr. Shirley C. Fisk
Kathleen Lanier Harriman (1917-2011), who married Stanley Grafton Mort imer Jr. (1913-1999), who had previously been married to socialite Bab e Paley (1915-1978)
About a year after his divorce from Lawrence, he married Marie Norto n Whitney (1903-1970), who had left her husband, Cornelius Vanderbil t Whitney, to marry him. On their honeymoon in Europe, they purchase d oil paintings by Van Gogh, Degas, Cézanne, Picasso, and Renoir. Sh e and her husband later donated many of the works she bought and colle cted, including those of the artist Walt Kuhn, to the National Galler y of Art in Washington, D.C. They remained married until her death o n September 26, 1970, at George Washington University Hospital in Wash ington, D.C.
In 1971, he married for the third and final time to Pamela Beryl Digb y Churchill Hayward (1920-1997), the former wife of Winston Churchill' s son Randolph, and widow of Broadway producer Leland Hayward. In 1993 , she became the 58th United States Ambassador to France.
Harriman died on July 26, 1986 in Yorktown Heights, New York, at the a ge of 94. Averell and Pamela Harriman are buried at the Arden Farm Gra veyard in Arden, New York.
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1891 - 1986 (94 år)
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