Albert C. Simmonds Jr.

Albert C. Simmonds Jr.
President of the Bank of New York
In office
1948–1957
Preceded byJohn C. Traphagen
Succeeded byDonald M. Elliman
Personal details
BornAlbert Carleton Simmonds Jr.
(1902-08-15)August 15, 1902
Simmesport, Louisiana
DiedJune 21, 1963(1963-06-21) (aged 60)
Presbyterian Hospital, Manhattan, New York
Spouse
Mary Adelaide Harding
​
​
(m. 1931; died 1963)​
EducationBolton High School
Alma materVanderbilt University
Harvard University

Albert Carleton Simmonds Jr. (August 15, 1902 – June 21, 1963) was an American banker.

Early life

Simmonds was born on June 21, 1963, at Simmesport in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. He was the eldest child of Albert Carleton Simmonds (1871–1930) and Nonie Adela (née Butler) Simmonds (1875–1963). His paternal grandparents were Henry Simmonds and Mary Eliza (née Reily) Simmonds. His maternal grandparents were Confederate soldier Thomas Callaham Butler and, his first wife, Jane (née Robinette) Butler.

After graduating from Bolton High School in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1917, Simmonds attended Vanderbilt University, graduating in 1922. He taught history for a year at the high school in Thomasville, Georgia before attending Harvard University, where he graduated with a Master of Business Administration in 1925.

Career

After Harvard, Simmonds joined the Texas and Pacific Railway Company in New York City. In 1930, he joined the Bank of New York and after subsequent stints as assistant treasurer, assistant vice president and vice president, he was elected to succeed John C. Traphagen as President of the Bank of New York in 1948. In 1957, he became chief executive officer and chairman of the bank, serving until his death in 1963. In 1960 and 1961, he was president of the New York State Bankers Association.

Simmonds also served as a trustee, or director, of the Greenwich Savings Bank, the North American Reassurance Company, the Celotex Corporation, the American Casualty Insurance Company, North American Reinsurance Corporation, the Borden Company, the Valley Forge Life Insurance Company, and the Valley Forge Insurance Company.

Personal life

On February 28, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois, Simmonds married Mary Adelaide Harding (1904–1994), a daughter of lawyer Victor M. Harding of Hubbard Woods, Illinois. They lived together at Indian Trail in Harrison, New York and were the parents of:

Simmonds died at the Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on August 15, 1902, and was buried at Greenwood Union Cemetery in Rye, New York. After his death, his widow married insurance executive Duncan M. Findlay of Huntington, New York, in 1964.

Notes

  1. ↑ Duncan M. Findlay, was previously married, and divorced, from Eleanora H. Noyes, the daughter of real estate developer Charles F. Noyes who gifted her an interest in the Crown Building in Manhattan, before it was sold by Noyes and Joseph Durst in November 1950.

References

  1. ↑ Stafford, George Mason Graham (1943). General Leroy Augustus Stafford: His Forebears and Descendants. Pelican Publishing Company. p. 267. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 The National Cyclopædia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time, Edited by Distinguished Biographers, Selected from Each State, Revised and Approved by the Most Eminent Historians, Scholars, and Statesmen of the Day. J. T. White Company. 1968. p. 409. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  3. ↑ The International Year Book and Statesmen's Who's who. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1962. p. 1500. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "A.C. SIMMONDS JR., BANKER, 60, DEAD; Headed Bank of New York --Led State Association". The New York Times. June 24, 1963. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  5. ↑ "CHANGES ANNOUNCED Bank of New York and Fifth Ave. Bank Shifts Officers". The New York Times. June 10, 1948. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  6. ↑ "MERGER IS PLANNED BY TWO OLD BANKS Bank of New York, Founded in 1784 by Hamilton, to Join With Fifth Ave. Bank". The New York Times. March 11, 1948. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 Kraus, Albert L. (July 5, 1959). "Personality: A 'Country Boy' Goes to Town; Simmonds Is Head of the Oldest Bank in Biggest City". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  8. ↑ "An Unusual Wall Street Banker; Albert Simmonds Is New Head of State Association He Will Hurry From Parley to Exhibit at Freedomland". The New York Times. June 17, 1960. p. 43. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  9. ↑ "Catherine Elizabeth Ryen To Wed John Simmonds". The New York Times. March 22, 1987. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  10. ↑ "Catherine Ryen Wed To John H. Simmonds". The New York Times. June 26, 1988. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  11. ↑ "Mrs. Simmonds Married". The New York Times. June 26, 1964. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  12. ↑ "Duncan Findlay, 87, Ex-Insurance Executive". The New York Times. November 19, 1987. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  13. ↑ "C.F. Noyes Gets Skyscraper for Grandchildren: In Partnership With Friend, Pays $5,000,000 for 26-Story Heckscher Building Heckscher Building". New York Herald Tribune. January 16, 1946. p. 32. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 1331242365.
  14. ↑ "5th Ave. Title Passed; Deed Shows Noyes Paid $5,000,000 for Heckscher Building". The New York Times. February 14, 1946. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 17, 2024. Retrieved June 17, 2024.
  15. ↑ "Florida Agent Buys 25-Story 5 th Av. Tower: Keyes, of Miami, Takes Heckscher Building at 57th St. Corner". New York Herald Tribune. November 5, 1950. p. C1. ISSN 1941-0646. ProQuest 1335548364.