Eugene Meyer (financier)
| Eugene Meyer | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 1st President of the World Bank Group | |
|
In office June 18, 1946 – December 4, 1946 |
|
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | John McCloy |
| Chair of the Federal Reserve | |
|
In office September 16, 1930 – May 10, 1933 |
|
| President |
Herbert Hoover Franklin Roosevelt |
| Deputy | J.J. Thomas |
| Preceded by | Roy Young |
| Succeeded by | Eugene Black |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Eugene Isaac Meyer October 31, 1875 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | July 17, 1959 (aged 83) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Agnes Ernst |
| Education |
University of California, Berkeley Yale University (BA) |
Eugene Isaac Meyer (October 31, 1875 – July 17, 1959) was an American financier, public official, and newspaper publisher. He was the publisher of the Washington Post newspaper. He served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1930 to 1933. He also served as the first President of the World Bank Group. He was the father of publisher Katharine Graham and portrait photographer Florence Meyer.
Born in Los Angeles, California, he was one of eight children of Marc Eugene Meyer and Harriet Newmark. His parents were Alsatian Jews, but he avoided identification as a Jew until later in life. He grew up in San Francisco and attended college across the bay at the University of California, Berkeley, but he dropped out after one year and later enrolled at Yale University. He received his A.B. in 1895.
After college, Meyer went to work for Lazard Freres, where his father was a partner, but quit in 1901 after four years and went out on his own. He was a successful investor and speculator and owned a seat on the . He married Agnes Elizabeth Ernst, a Lutheran, in 1910; they had five children, including the future Katharine Graham and another daughter Florence Meyer (1911–1962) (Mrs. Oskar Homolka). By 1915, when he was forty, he was worth $40 million.
In 1920, Meyer teamed with William H. Nichols of General Chemical to help fulfill his vision of a bigger, better chemical company. Meyer and Nichols combined five smaller chemical companies to create the Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, which later became Allied Chemical Corp., and eventually became part of AlliedSignal, the forerunner of Honeywell’s specialty materials business. Both men have buildings named after them at Honeywell’s headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey.
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