George Foster Peabody
| George Foster Peabody | |
|---|---|
George Foster Peabody (1907)
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| Born |
July 27, 1852 Columbus, Georgia, United States |
| Died | March 4, 1938 (aged 85) Warm Springs, Georgia, United States |
| Occupation | Banker |
| Known for | Namesake of the Peabody Awards |
George Foster Peabody (July 27, 1852 – March 4, 1938) was an American banker and philanthropist.
He was born to George Henry Peabody and Elvira Peabody (née Canfield) as the first of four children. Both parents were native New Englanders of colonial ancestry. George Henry Peabody, who came from a line of merchants, bankers and professional men, had moved from Connecticut to Columbus, Georgia, where he ran a prosperous general store. After attending private school in Columbus, young Peabody spent a few months at Deer Hill Institute in Danbury, Connecticut. The Civil War, however, impoverished his family, and in 1866 they moved to Brooklyn, New York, and young Peabody went to work as an errand boy.
In the evenings Peabody read extensively at the library of the Brooklyn Y.M.C.A., which he later called his "alma mater", and also took part in the activities of the Reformed Church in Brooklyn Heights, where he met and became good friends with young investment banker Spencer Trask. On May 2, 1881, Peabody became a partner in the new firm of Spencer Trask & Company. During the 1880s and 1890s this investment house took a leading part in financing electric lighting corporations, sugar beet and other industrial enterprises, and railroad construction in the western United States and Mexico. Peabody himself handled most of the firm's railroad investments, working in close association with William J. Palmer. He also became a director in numerous corporations. Peabody, his brother Charles Jones Peabody and Spencer Trask amassed a great portion of their wealth from the Edison Electric Company. Trask served as president of Edison Electric Illuminating, and when J. P. Morgan—protégé of New England businessman/philanthropist George Peabody—financier of Edison Electric, merged all into the General Electric Company in 1892, George Foster Peabody became a member of the GE board of directors.
Peabody retired from business in 1906 to pursue a life of public service. Long interested in social causes, he supported such progressive ideas as the single tax as advocated by Henry George in his book Progress and Poverty, free trade, women's suffrage and government ownership of railroads. He was also active in the anti-war movement. He was also interested in education, particularly in the South and also particularly for African-Americans. He served as director of the General Education Board, treasurer of the Southern Education Board and on the boards of trustees of the American Church Institute for Negroes, Hampton in Virginia, Tuskegee University in Alabama, the University of Georgia, and the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.
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