Haley Fiske (March 18, 1852 – March 4, 1929) was an American lawyer who served as 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 ...

Early life

Fiske was born on March 18, 1852, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was a son of William Henry Fiske and Sarah Ann ( Blakeney) Fiske. His namesake grandfather, Haley Fiske, had established an

iron foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

in New Brunswick which his sons continued after the

U.S. Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states t ...

. He was educated at privately by Henry Waters in New Brunswick before attending

Rutgers College Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

from where he graduated in 1871.

Career

After his graduation from Rutgers, he worked as a reporter for local newspapers for two years before becoming a clerk in the New York law firm of Arnoux, Ritch & Woodford. The firm was counsel for the

and, following his admission to the bar, he managed the company's litigation, eventually becoming a partner in the firm. When John R. Hegeman became president of Metropolitan Life in 1891, he brought Fiske in as a vice president. After Hegeman died in 1919, Fiske was elected to succeed him as president of Metropolitan Life, which at the time was "the largest financial institution in the world."

Personal life

On January 10, 1878, Fiske was married to Mary Garrettena Mulford (1856–1886). Before her death on February 3, 1886, they were the parents of: * Helen Fiske (b. 1884) After his first wife's death, he married Marione Cowles Cushman (1867–1946), the daughter of Archibald Falconer Cushman and Sarah Ann ( Cowles) Cushman, on April 27, 1887. Together, they had a home in Bernardsville, N.J. and New York City, were the parents of: * Archibald Falconer Cushman Fiske (1888–1931) * Marione Virginia Fiske, who married Kenneth Clark Johnson. * Katherine Cushman Fiske, who married Emmons Parkman Burrill. * Margaret Louise Fiske, who married John Speicher, and, later, Stalcoskie. * Haley Fiske, Jr. (1897–1961), who married Helen Lowe Rice, a daughter of William Lowe Rice (founder of the law firm known today as Jones Day). Fiske died in his automobile in front of his home at 898 Park Avenue after returning from Church on March 4, 1929. His entire estate was left to his widow and children. His widow died on December 31, 1946, at 10 Campden Road, her home in

Scarsdale, New York Scarsdale is a town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several village ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiske, Haley 1852 births 1929 deaths MetLife people American chief executives of financial services companies Rutgers University alumni People from New Brunswick, New Jersey 20th-century American businesspeople