Gates W. McGarrah
Gates W. McGarrah | |
|---|---|
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| President of the Bank for International Settlements | |
| In office April 1930 – May 1933 | |
| General Manager | Pierre Quesnay |
| Preceded by | Inaugural holder |
| Succeeded by | Leon Fraser |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gates White McGarrah July 20, 1863 Monroe, New York, U.S. |
| Died | November 5, 1940 (aged 77) New York City, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse |
Elizabeth Wallace (m. 1886) |
| Relations | Richard Helms (grandson) |
| Children | 2 |
| Occupation | Banker |
Gates White McGarrah II (July 20, 1863 – November 5, 1940) was a prominent American banker who served as the first president of the Bank for International Settlements.
Early life
McGarrah was born on July 20, 1863, in Monroe in Orange County, New York. He was a son of Theodore McGarrah (1835–1907), a country storekeeper, and Mary Abbott (née Pearsall) McGarrah (1834–1917). Among his siblings was younger brother Eugene McGarrah, and younger sister Ella McGarrah. His paternal grandparents were Gates White McGarrah (the son of New York Assemblyman John McGarrah) and Mary Ann (née VanDuzer) McGarrah. His maternal grandfather was Rowland Pearsall.
He attended grade and high schools in Orange County.
Career
At age eighteen, McGarrah moved to nearby Goshen, New York, where he was employed by the Goshen National Bank beginning in 1881. In 1883, he began his first job in New York was as a check clerk in the Produce Exchange Bank. In 1892, he was made assistant cashier of the Bank. Later in his career he was known as one of the "Country Boys as City Bankers."
In 1898, he became cashier of the Leather Manufacturers National Bank, before becoming its president in 1902. The Bank merged with the Mechanic's National Bank in 1904 and McGarrah was chosen to be president of the merged bank. While he ran Mechanic, it acquired the Fourth National Bank, the National Copper Bank, and the Produce Exchange Bank before it merged with Chase National Bank in 1926. After the 1926 merger, he became chairman of the executive committee of the Chase Bank.
In 1903, McGarrah, along with the American Bankers Association, was one of the founders of the American Institute of Banking which provided professional education via examinations and certificates. During the Panic of 1907, he was a member of the New York Clearing House Association, later serving as its president. In 1918, as head of the Mechanics and Metals Bank, he was aligned with William P. G. Harding, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, in his fear of "unsettlement as result of general adoption of higher rates on deposits."}} McGarrah was quoted as saying:
"There is no wizardry in finance. The only foundation for success is patience, hard work and good friends."
From 1923 to 1926, McGarrah, a Republican, served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He was a member of the board of directors of the Astor Foundation, which owned Newsweek.
In April 1930, McGarrah became the first president and chairman of the board of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, He served as president, until his retirement in 1933.
Personal life
On October 6, 1886, McGarrah was married to Elizabeth Wallace (1863–1951) in Goshen. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Wallace and Mary (née Strong) Wallace.
- Marion Lavinia McGarrah (1889-1975),
- Helen McGarrah (1904–1984), who married Jabez Curry Watson Jr. (1901–1944). After his death, she married Murray Paton Fleming, a former wing commander in the Royal Canadian Air Force, in 1946.
He was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Riding Club, the City Club, the Down Town Club, the Midday Club, the Brook Club, the Bankers Club, the Tuxedo Club, the Links Club, the Recess Club, the Orange County Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Racquet and Tennis Club, and Union League Club in New York, serving as its president for some time. Peruvian artist Carlos Baca-Flor painted a portrait of McGarrah, as did A. S. Nowell. For a time, the McGarrah's lived in a large mansion at 740 Madison Avenue and East 64th Street owned by Charles Jefferson Harrah and altered by architect Mantle Fielding.
McGarrah died at the Doctors Hospital in Manhattan on November 5, 1940. died at their home in Goshen in October 1951.
Descendants
Through his daughter Marion, he was a grandfather of former Director of Central Intelligence and United States Ambassador to Iran, Richard McGarrah Helms (1913–2002). In 1950, Helms published The Gates W. McGarrah Collection of Presidential Autographs, photostats of sixty-eight autograph letters of the presidents from George Washington through Theodore Roosevelt, assembled by McGarrah. Another grandson, World War II naval officer, Gates McGarrah Helms, was married to Mount Holyoke College graduate, Alberta Brantley Loughran, daughter of Roger Hall Loughran.
Through his daughter Helen, he was a grandfather to three boys, Hugh Watson, David Watson and Michael Watson.
- Notes
- Sources
External links
- Gates W. McGarrah at Find a Grave
- McGarrah, Gates W. 1863-1940 at WorldCat
- McGarrah, Gates W., 1863-1940 at the Library of Congress