Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney biography
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, (born Feb. 20, 1899, Roslyn, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 13, 1992, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.), American businessman who turned inherited wealth and quite a lot of pursuits into important achievements in enterprise and public service.
Whitney was born into two of probably the most distinguished households within the United States. His mom was the sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founding father of the Whitney Museum of American Art and heiress to a railroad and steamship fortune, and his father was Henry Payne Whitney, inheritor to fortunes in oil and tobacco. Whitney attended the Groton Preparatory School in Massachusetts, turned a flying teacher in World War I, and graduated from Yale University (1922).
Whitney started working in his father’s mine in Nevada in 1922. He based the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company in 1931 and served because the chairman of the board from 1931 to 1964 because it grew into one of many largest mining operations in Canada. In 1927 he joined a coalition of backers to determine Pan American Airways and served because the chairman of the board till 1941. Along with David O. Selznick, he produced such movies as A Star Is Born (1937) and Gone with the Wind (1939). In 1937 Whitney established the oceanarium that turned generally known as Marineland, close to St. Augustine, Fla. With the acquisition of his father’s horse farm and racing steady, he launched into a lifelong involvement with horse racing. During World War II he served as employees officer within the U.S. Army Air Forces, rising to the rank of colonel. He served in President Harry S. Truman’s administration as the primary assistant secretary of the newly impartial U.S. Air Force (1947–49) after which as undersecretary of commerce (1949–50). In 1958, his fourth marriage, to actress Marylou Horsford, turned his pursuits to many philanthropies, particularly within the arts. In 1985 he was given the Eclipse Award for lifetime achievements in Thoroughbred horse racing. An autobiography, High Peaks, was printed in 1977.