Francis Abott Goodhue Jr. (June 14, 1883 – June 1963)[1] was an American banker who was the president of the
Bank of the Manhattan Company from 1931 to 1948.
Early life
Goodhue was born in
Brookline, Massachusetts on June 14, 1883.[1] He was a son of Francis Abott Goodhue (1847–1905) and Elizabeth Johnson (
née Cushing) Goodhue. His siblings were Lawrence Cushing Goodhue (husband of Gertrude Munroe Smith, a daughter of Prof.
Munroe Smith and granddaughter of Gen.
Henry S. Huidekoper) and Elizabeth Cushing Goodhue (wife of
Claude Fuess, Headmaster of Phillips Academy). His paternal grandparents were Samuel Goodhue and Mary Caroline (née Williams) Goodhue.
In 1907, Goodhue began his banking career as a messenger with
First National Bank of Boston. He became president of the Brookline Trust Company in 1912 a year before he was named vice president of the First National Bank of Boston and engaged in foreign banking activities. In 1917, he established a branch of the bank in
Buenos Aires,
Argentina.[1] In 1919, while at First National, he "inspired the formation" of the French American Banking Corporation of New York, serving as a director.[2]
In 1921, Goodhue came to New York City to help organize the
International Acceptance Bank, of which he served as president from 1921 until 1931, with
James Warburg (the son of
Paul Warburg) as his vice president. The International Acceptance Bank was acquired by the
Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1929, with Goodhue becoming president and Warburg becoming chairman of the combined organization.[2]
In 1929, he was elected president of the American Acceptance Council which had been founded by
Paul Warburg in 1919. In 1931, he was succeeded by Charles S. McCain, chairman of the board of the
Chase National Bank.[3]
When International Acceptance merged with the
Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1931,[4] he became president of the combined bank serving in that role until his retirement in 1948 when he was succeeded by
Lawrence C. Marshall.[5]
Volunteer and philanthropic efforts
In 1918, Goodhue served as one of three representing the United States on the Interallied Committee for War, Purchases and Finance in
London. In 1932, he began serving on the American Committee on Standstill Credits to Germany. He resigned in 1939 because the bank had no longer had any outstanding debts under the agreement.[6][7]
In 1937, he accepted the chairmanship of the finance section in the United Hospitals Campaign. In that role, he directed the work of nineteen major solicitation groups on behalf of the ninety-two voluntary hospitals in the fund and the
Visiting Nurse Association of Brooklyn.[8]
After his retirement from the Manhattan Company in 1948, he continued to serve on the board until 1955 when the bank was merged with the
Chase National Bank becoming the
Chase Manhattan Bank. Goodhue served as a member of the bank's trust advisory board until his death in 1963.[1]
Personal life
Goodhue was married to Nora Forbes Thayer (1889–1988). She was a daughter of the former Evelyn Duncan Forbes and prominent ornithologist
John Eliot Thayer (the twin brother of yachtsman
Bayard Thayer).[11] Her paternal grandparents were banker
Nathaniel Thayer Jr. and Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer (a daughter of
Stephen Van Rensselaer IV).[12] Together, they were the parents of:
Phoebe Thayer Goodhue (1919–2019),[16] who had her debut in 1937 at the Corinthian Room of
The Pierre.[17] She married Lt. Warren Winslow (1918–1944) in 1942.[18] After his death in January 1944 while serving with the
U.S. Navy, she married Gerrish H. Milliken Jr. (1917–2015), a brother of
Roger Milliken, grandson of
Seth M. Milliken of
Milliken & Company, and great-grandson of
Seth L. Milliken, in 1946.[19]
John Thayer Goodhue, a vice president of international sales with the West India Shipping Company in New York,[20] who married Charlotte Barton Streeter (1927–2013),[21] a daughter of
Edward Streeter, in 1949.[22]
Goodhue died of a heart attack at his home, 16 Ives Road,
Hewlett on
Long Island, in June 1963.[1] They also had a home in Lancaster.[24]
Descendants
Through his son Francis, he was a grandfather of Francis Abott Goodhue IV, who married Evelyn Treat Cutler, a daughter of Philip Cutler of
Dresden Mills, Maine (the founding headmaster of the
Brookwood School in
Manchester-by-the-Sea), in 1976.[25]