Frederick Hudson Ecker (August 30, 1867 – March 20, 1964) was an Insurance executive, and president of the

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...

. He won the 1947 Gold Medal Award from

The Hundred Year Association of New York The Hundred Year Association of New York, founded in 1927, is a non-profit organization in New York City that recognizes and rewards dedication and service to the City of New York by businesses and organizations that have been in operation in the ...

Life

He was born in

Phoenicia, New York Phoenicia is a hamlet (and census-designated place) of Shandaken in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 309 at the 2010 census, making it the highest populated community in the town. The village center is located just off R ...

, and grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He starting working for Metropolitan as an office boy, and rose to become chairman. He was president, from 1929 to 1936. He was involved in the company's real estate investments:

Parkchester Parkchester is a planned community and neighborhood originally developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and located in the central Bronx, New York City. The immediate surrounding area also takes its name from the complex. Its boundari ...

, and

Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village, sometimes shortened to StuyTown, is a large post–World War II private residential development on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The complex consists of 110 red brick apartment b ...

and

Riverton Houses The Riverton Houses is a large (originally 1,232 unit) residential development in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. Ownership The project was proposed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1944, and largely served an African American p ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. These projects were racially segregated, which Ecker justified by saying, "If we brought Negroes into these developments, it would be to the detriment of the city, because it would depress all the surrounding property.” In 1935, he was questioned by the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

, about railroad investments. In 1940, he defended investing in the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

. In 1941, the company invested in large garden apartment developments in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Family

In 1890, married Henrietta Worrall Harris; in 1932, he married Mrs. Ann Edith Strafford. She died in 1950. His son Frederic W. Ecker (1896-1964) was his second successor (after Leroy A. Lincoln) as president and chairman of Metropolitan Life.''New York Times'' obituary
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ecker, Frederick H. 1867 births 1964 deaths MetLife people People from Ulster County, New York American chief executives of financial services companies