John William Sterling (May 12, 1844 – July 5, 1918) was a founding partner of

Shearman & Sterling LLP Shearman & Sterling LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in New York City, United States. The firm's lawyers come from some 80 countries, speak more than 60 languages and practice US, English, EU, French, Spanish, German, Hong Kong, OHAD ...

and major benefactor to Yale University.

Early life and career

John William Sterling was born in

Stratford, Connecticut Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is situated on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. Stratford is in the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was settled ...

, the son of Catherine Tomlinson (Plant) and John William Sterling. He graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1864 and was a member of Skull and Bones and president of Brothers in Unity during his senior year. He graduated from Columbia Law School as the valedictorian of the class of 1867 and was admitted to the bar in that year. He obtained an M.A. degree in 1874. He became a corporate lawyer in New York City, and in 1871 helped found the

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...

Shearman & Sterling Shearman & Sterling LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in New York City, United States. The firm's lawyers come from some 80 countries, speak more than 60 languages and practice US, English, EU, French, Spanish, German, Hong Kong, OHAD ...

, which represented Jay Gould, Henry Ford, the Rockefeller family, and

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

. On his death in 1918, Sterling left a residuary estate of $15 million to Yale, at the time the "largest sum of money ever donated to an institution of higher learning in history"—equivalent to about $200 million in 2011 dollars. After the estate appraisal was complete a year later, the Yale bequest was "about $18 million." He required Yale to fund "at least one enduring, useful and architecturally beautiful building, which will constitute a fitting Memorial of my gratitude to and affection for my '' alma mater''" and "the foundation of Scholarships, Fellowships or Lectureships, the endowment of new professorships and the establishment of special funds for prizes"—these mandates led to the construction of the Sterling Memorial Library, Sterling Law Building, the

Hall of Graduate Studies In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

, and the Sterling Hall of Medicine, and the endowment of the

Sterling Professor Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a tenured faculty member considered the best in his or her field. It is akin to the rank of university professor at other universities. The appointment, made by the ...

ships.

Personal life

Sterling never married. In 2003, historian Jonathan Ned Katz uncovered evidence that Sterling lived for nearly fifty years in a same-sex intimate partnership with cotton broker

James O. Bloss James O. Bloss (September 30, 1847 – December 15, 1918) was the president of the New York Cotton Exchange and domestic partner of John William Sterling, founding partner of Shearman & Sterling LLP and major benefactor to Yale University. Biograph ...

Death

Sterling died July 5, 1918, while staying at the fishing lodge of Lord Mount Stephen in

Grand-Métis Grand-Métis is a municipality in the La Mitis Regional County Municipality within the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, Canada. It is situated where the Mitis River meets the Saint Lawrence River, and was developed from 1818 by the pioneering ...

, Quebec; he is entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery. Sterling's sister Cordelia donated the Sterling House and its surrounding estate—part of the

Sterling Homestead The Sterling Homestead is a historic house at 2225 Main Street in Stratford, Connecticut. It is a -story wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side-gable roof and two interior chimneys. A front-facing cross gable, decorated with a fan l ...

—to

References

External links

John William Sterling and James Orville Bloss
from outhistory.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Sterling, John William New York (state) lawyers Yale University alumni Columbia Law School alumni 1844 births 1918 deaths Benefactors of Yale University People associated with Shearman & Sterling 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century American philanthropists