William Henry Vanderbilt III

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder William Henry Vanderbilt III (November 24, 1901Template:Spaced ndashApril 14, 1981) was an American politician who served as Governor of Rhode Island from 1939 to 1941, and a member of the wealthy and socially prominent Vanderbilt family.

Early life

Vanderbilt was born in New York City on November 24, 1901. He was the son of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt and Ellen "Elsie" French. Vanderbilt's father was a great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded the family fortune in railroads and shipping. William Vanderbilt's parents divorced in 1908, and through his father's second marriage he had two half-brothers, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr., and George Washington Vanderbilt III. In 1915, his father perished in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

Education

Vanderbilt was educated at St. George's School in Middletown, Rhode Island (Class of 1919) and the Evans School in Mesa, Arizona. He attended Princeton University but dropped out during his first year. In 1940, Vanderbilt received an honorary LL.D. from Bates College.

Career

First World War

Shortly before the United States declared war on Germany during the First World War, Vanderbilt dropped out of St. George's School upon his appointment as a midshipman in the U.S. Naval Coast Defense Reserve to rank from March 20, 1917.<ref>United States Navy Register, 1918. page 349.</ref> As he was only 15 at the time, he was one of the youngest Americans to have served in the war.

During his service in the Navy, Vanderbilt served on the torpedo test ship Template:USS from April 17 to May 31, 1917, the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport from June 1, 1917 to March 7, 1918, aide for information Second Naval District from March 7 to July 15, 1918, in Norfolk, Virginia from July 23 to September 16, 1918, New London, Connecticut from September 19 to November 14, 1918 and as a plank owner of the newly commissioned destroyer Template:USS from November 11, 1918 to August 30, 1919.<ref>St. George's School in the War, page 151.</ref> While serving on the Evans, Vanderbilt went on a cruise to Europe from June to August 1919. He was discharged from the Navy shortly after the end of the cruise, having not yet reached his 18th birthday.

Inheritance

Contemporary newspaper articles reporting on the 1917 appraisal of his father's estate in the New York County Surrogate's Court note that William received a Trust Fund of $4,612,086 ($109,789,986.59 in 2023 when adjusted for inflation<ref>US Inflation Calculator, https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/, accessed 7 April 2024</ref>), a life interest in $400,000, as well as the Congressional Gold Medal presented by the 38th US Congress to William's great-great grandfather Cornelius 'the Commodore' Vanderbilt I in 1864 which had come to signify the Headship of the Vanderbilt Dynasty.<ref>The Tacoma Daily Ledger, 9 August 1917, Page 9. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tacoma-daily-ledger-alfred-g-vanderb/144925447/ : accessed 7 April 2024), clip page for Alfred G Vanderbilt - Division of Estate.</ref>

Vanderbilt also received the 450 acre (1.8 km²) Oakland Farm Estate in Portsmouth, Rhode Island under the terms of his father's will. He made the farm his permanent home until the end of the Second World War.

The Short Line

In 1925, Vanderbilt started a coach bus company, called The Short Line, carrying passengers between Newport and Providence. Within a few years he expanded the business to serve points throughout New England and New York. The Short Line was purchased by George Sage in 1955 and, in 1970, was renamed Bonanza Bus Lines. Bonanza eventually merged with the Coach USA bus line in 1998 and was sold to Peter Pan Bus Lines in 2003. The Short Line's original terminal building in Newport still stands and is located near the intersection of Spring and Touro streets.

As a state senator and successful business leader, Vanderbilt was also a champion of the Mount Hope Bridge which connects Aquidneck Island with the mainland on the road north to Providence, Rhode Island from Newport. He was named the Chairman of the Mount Hope Bridge Commission and gave the opening address at the bridge's dedication on October 24, 1929.<ref>Rhode Island Historical Society</ref> When it was completed, the Mount Hope Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in New England, and one of the longest in the country.

Political career

Gubernatorial portrait by Ellen Emmet Rand, 1939

Vanderbilt was a member of the Republican Party. In 1928 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention from Rhode Island and that year was elected to the Rhode Island State Senate. Vanderbilt served in the State Senate for six years (1929–1935) and then took time off to be with his ailing wife, Anne Gordon Colby. On her recovery, he re-entered political life and successfully ran for Governor of Rhode Island in 1938. He served one two-year term from January 1939 to January 1941. His refusal to dole out patronage to fellow Republicans, however, weakened his power base, and a scandal over wire-tapping by a private detective firm he had hired to investigate election fraud, cost him re-election in 1940.

Navy service during World War II

In May 1941 Vanderbilt, an officer in the Naval Reserve, was called to active duty in June 1941 with the rank of lieutenant commander and initially assigned to the Panama Canal Zone.<ref>New York Times. June 7, 1941.</ref> He was promoted to commander on August 15, 1942.<ref>Naval Reserve Register. 1944.</ref> In 1942 Vanderbilt was assigned as executive officer of the Special Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) under General William J. Donovan. In May 1944 he was assigned to the staff of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.<ref>New York Times. May 28, 1944.</ref> He was promoted to the rank of captain prior to the end of the war.<ref>New York Times, May 6, 1941. ; U.S. Navy Reserve Register, 1943</ref>

Later life

After his discharge from the Navy at the end of the war, Vanderbilt left Rhode Island and retired to a farm in South Williamstown, Massachusetts. Oakland Farm and its 150 acres in Portsmouth, Rhode Island was sold to Robert R. Young and divided into housing lots by the end of the 1940s.<ref name="preservationRI">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Vanderbilt died of cancer on April 14, 1981, at the age of 79.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He was buried in the Southlawn Cemetery in Williamstown, Massachusetts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He is one of the few descendants of William Henry Vanderbilt not to be buried in the family tomb on Staten Island. His estate, filed in the Berkshire County Probate Court in April 1982, was valued at approximately $1.7 million.<ref>The Berkshire Eagle. (3 April 1982). Vanderbilt Estate totals $1.7 million - Governor William Henry Vanderbilt III. Newspapers.com. Retrieved 11 January 2025, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-berkshire-eagle-vanderbilt-estate-to/162765160/, accessed 11 January 2025.</ref> He bequeathed the 1864 Congressional Gold Medal which had been awarded to his great-great-grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt (which had passed to William under the Will of his father Alfred) to his only son, William H. Vanderbilt IV, who donated the medal and several other family heirlooms were donated to Vanderbilt University in 2022.<ref name="VanderbiltIVCollection">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life

Vanderbilt married Emily O'Neill Davies (1903–1935),<ref name="1935death">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> granddaughter of Daniel O'Neill, owner of the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper, and daughter of Frederick Martin Davies on November 1, 1923 at Grace Church, New York. Emily was the grandniece of Frederick Townsend Martin, a prominent writer of the 1920s. The couple gave birth to a daughter:

• Emily "Paddy" Vanderbilt (1925–2024),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> who married Jeptha Wade, both graduates of MIT.<ref name="McCluskey">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The couple's marriage was troubled and Emily sued for divorce in Paris in the summer of 1926, but reconciled. She again sued for divorce in Newport, Rhode Island which was granted in June 1928.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She later married Sigourney Thayer (1896–1944), for less than a year, and then Raoul Whitfield (1896–1945), shortly before her death in 1935.<ref name="1935death"/>

On December 27, 1929, Vanderbilt married for the second time to Anne Gordon Colby (1909–1974) of West Orange, New Jersey. Together, they had three children:

• Anne Vanderbilt (1931–2014), who was married Samuel Adams Hartwell, Sr.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Elsie Vanderbilt, who married Andre Walter George Newburg (1928–2018) in 1954 and M. Bernard Aidinoff (1929–2016) in 1996.<ref name="AidinoffObit2016">Template:Cite news</ref>
• William H. Vanderbilt IV (born 1945)

This marriage also ended in divorce in 1969 after 40 years of marriage, and Vanderbilt promptly remarried the following year to Helen Cummings Cook (died 1997), who was previously married to John R. Cook, founder of Warren Cable Co., who survived him in death.<ref name="HelenObit">Template:Cite news</ref>

Awards

For his service in the Navy, Vanderbilt was entitled to the following medals:

• World War I Victory Medal
• Naval Reserve Medal
• American Defense Service Medal with "BASE" clasp
• American Campaign Medal
• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
• World War II Victory Medal

References

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