Henry William Poor (June 16, 1844 – April 13, 1915) was an American
banker
A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...
,
stockbroker
A stockbroker is a regulated broker, broker-dealer, or registered investment adviser (in the United States) who may provide financial advisory and investment management services and execute transactions such as the purchase or sale of stocks an ...
, and
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
.
Biography
Early life
Henry William Poor was born in
Bangor, Maine
Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121).
Modern Bangor ...
in 1844, the son of
Henry Varnum Poor. The family moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
when he was five years old, and he spent his youth there. He attended
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
, graduating in 1865. The firm that he and his father established in 1868, H. V. & H. W. Poor, was a predecessor to the business that eventually became
Standard & Poor's
S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is con ...
.
A History of Standard & Poor's
/ref>
He married Constance Evelyn Brandon on February 4, 1880, and they had five children.
Career
He became prominent as a stockbroker and investor, but had to liquidate his business in 1908 following some major losses.["Henry W. Poor Fails; Loss Over a Million; Little Left of the Broker and Publisher's Once Large Fortune. Mergers Didn't Succeed; He Is Said to Have Lost Heavily In the Failure of His Sugar and Ice Investments."]
''The New York Times'', December 27, 1908
He was also widely known as a book collector
Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given collector. The love of books is '' bibliophilia'', and some ...
and a patron of the arts.[
]
Death
He died in New York City on April 13, 1915.[Henry W. Poor Dies; Railway Publisher; Head of Poor's Manual and Banker Expires Suddenly at His Home, at 71. Made and Lost a Fortune; His Wife Gave Her Big Estate to His Creditors in 1908 -- An Art and Book Collector.]
''The New York Times'', April 14, 1915
References
External links
Gilding the Gilded Age: Interior Decoration Tastes & Trends in New York City
A collaboration between The Frick Collection and The William Randolph Hearst Archive at LIU Post.
Writers from Bangor, Maine
1844 births
1915 deaths
Businesspeople from Maine
Stockbrokers
Harvard College alumni
19th-century American businesspeople
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