Peter Arrell Brown Widener II
| Peter Arrell Browne Widener II | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 25, 1895 Long Branch, New Jersey, US |
| Died | April 20, 1948 (aged 52) Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania |
| Resting place | West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia |
| Residence | |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Businessman, horseman, art collector, philanthropist |
| Spouse(s) | Gertrude T. Peabody (né Douglas) m. Nov 1924 |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) |
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Peter Arrell Browne Widener II (1895 – 1948) was a wealthy American racehorse owner and breeder who inherited the fortune of his father Joseph E. Widener, a founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the second son of the extremely wealthy transportation and real estate magnate Peter A. B. Widener (1834–1915) and Hannah Josephine Dunton (1836 – 1896). His father was also a major figure in Thoroughbred horse racing, the President of Belmont Park from 1925 to 1939 and builder of Miami, Florida's Hialeah Park racetrack.
Peter A.B. Widener II was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, the oldest child and only son of Joseph Early Widener (1871–1943) and Ella Pancoast. He grew up in Palm Beach, spending winters at Il Palmetto, the Treanor & Fatio-designed South End landmark built for their parents and on the Widener family's Lynnewood Hall estate in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. Designed by Horace Trumbauer and Jacques Greber, the 110-room Georgian-style mansion, along with its extensive and important art collection, was built by his grandfather Peter A.B. Widener.
After graduating from private school in Massachusetts in 1915, P.A.B. II then went to Harvard for a year. While at Newport in July 1916 he made the papers for rescuing a daughter of prominent locals who had gone under in rough surf at Baileys Beach and held her in the water for 10 minutes until lifeguards arrived. In 1917 he went to Washington, D.C. with his father Joseph E. Widener who persuaded the Surgeon General to admit him to the Army as a Private despite having flat feet and a suspect heart condition, caused by a childhood bout of pneumonia. PAB II then served in World War I with the U.S. Expeditionary Forces in France with a medical unit, tending to the wounded and also serving as an interpreter because of his fluency in French. He rose through the ranks to Sergeant and then returned to Elkins Park as 1st Lieutenant in March 1919.
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