(2 of 6)
Grottie's Gesture, From birth Dick Whitney was destined for financial importance. Descended from a family which landed at Salem on the good ship Arabella in 1630, he was no relation to the famed and even richer Long Island Whitneys (Jock & Sonny) but his father was president of a Boston bank, his Uncle Edward Whitney a partner in J. P. Morgan & Co. Big, arrogant Dick Whitney followed the typical career of his patrician class— Groton, where he was a good student and captain of the baseball team, Harvard, where he made the Varsity crew and Porcellian Club, then a year in the top-notch Boston firm of Kidder, Peabody & Co., finally to New York in 1912. Soon after, Dick Whitney's elder brother George, also Porcellian at Harvard, married the daughter of a Morgan partner, was soon to be one himself. Dick presently married beautiful Mrs. Samuel Sands, whose father, George Sheldon, had been president of the Union League Club. After that the House of Morgan was ever open to the eminently reliable looking Grottie and when he formed Richard Whitney & Co. in 1916, he landed a large share of Morgan's brokerage business. Thirteen years later it was as a Morgan broker that he made himself a national legend over-night—though it is apparently little more than a myth, he was reported to have made a spectacular attempt to halt the market crash by loudly bidding $205 a share for 10,000 shares of U. S. Steel.
It was this grandstand play which made Dick Whitney president of the Exchange next year. He was hailed as an intrepid strongman and for five years he played the role to the hilt. During the panic he refused to close the Exchange. Later when the Government began its legislative lassoing of the Exchange, Dick Whitney led the fight against it in a manner which gave him a reputation as the most arrogant and supercilious witness ever to attend a Senate hearing. A large portion of Wall Street feels Dick Whitney lost the fight largely because he was so uncompromising, so obstinate in the face of reform. Until last week, another large section of Wall Street literally regarded Dick Whitney as its idol and leader even though he was no longer head of the Exchange.
Hard & Soft. Having served for five years. President Whitney was squeezed out in 1935 by a group which had tired of Whitney's resistance to change. One of the leaders of the revolt was John W. Hanes, now a Securities & Exchange Commissioner. For a time it looked as though Dick Whitney would run as an independent candidate when the Stock Exchange election committee nominated "liberal" Charles Richard Gay for the presidency. But Dick Whitney took a seat as an Exchange Governor instead, settled down to what Wall Street supposed was an enviable business in Richard Whitney & Co. On his 495-acre estate near Far Hills, N. J. he raised champion Ayrshire cattle, stabled 18 horses, was Master of Fox Hounds for the Essex Hunt. Socially he was as hard as a Swiss bond. His two daughters enjoyed eminently correct debuts, his wife helped organize the Butlers' Ball, devoted much time to correct charities.