Raymond Blaine Fosdick (9 June 1883 - 19 July 1972) was an American lawyer, public administrator and author. He served as the president of the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
for twelve years (1936-1948). He was an ardent internationalist and supporter of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
, standing as its Undersecretary in its provisional organisation before resigning after the U.S. Senate's failure to ratify the
Covenant of the League of Nations
The Covenant of the League of Nations was the charter of the League of Nations. It was signed on 28 June 1919 as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, and became effective together with the rest of the Treaty on 10 January 1920.
Creation
Early d ...
. After stepping down from his position as Undersecretary, he started his law firm and grew closer to
John D. Rockefeller Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller.
He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in M ...
, which would lead to a long and fruitful relationship as a friend and adviser. From his position as a trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation as well as numerous other Rockefeller philanthropies, he moved to being the president of the foundation. Fosdick lead the organisation through the difficult years of World WarII before retiring and becoming an author, documenting the history of the foundation and Rockefeller Jr.'s life.
Raymond Blaine Fosdick was born on June 9, 1883, in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
, the son of Frank Sheldon Fosdick and Amy Weaver Fosdick. He grew up in a middle class and devoutly religious family. While his older brother
Harry
Harry may refer to:
TV shows
* ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin
* ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons
* ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...
went on to become a Baptist clergyman, Raymond grew to question religious teachings, later separating himself from his family's religious beliefs.
He grew up in a household that valued literature and learning highly; with the family often gathering around their living room table, as the children chose books to read from their extensive library. This passion for reading was instilled in Raymond from a young age and carried with him into adulthood. He began apprenticing to become a writer and would go on to publish an extensive list of books throughout his life.
Raymond was educated at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
where he completed his bachelor's degree in 1905. For his master's degree, Fosdick attended
New York Law School
New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...
, graduating in 1908.
Early career
After graduation, Fosdick started his career working as a public investigator for the city of New York before being appointed Commissioner of Accounts. After having had developed a deep admiration for
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
while being a student of his at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
, Fosdick was nominated as auditor and comptroller of the
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
in 1912 despite the fact he was a lifelong Republican. The offer came at Wilson's direct request, who told Fosdick in a letter that he would "feel greatly honoured that a former pupil, who has distinguished himself in a position of trust, should turn to me at this time".
Fosdick first met John D. Rockefeller Jr. while investigating the issue of "white slavery" and prostitution, as the latter was the chairman of the special Grand Jury in Manhattan which was looking into the matter. Rockefeller later hired Fosdick to conduct a study on police systems in Europe on behalf of the Bureau of Social Hygiene. While the Bureau's work tended to focus on the issue of prostitution, Fosdick's goal was to provide an accurate description of the overall policing methods and arrangements implemented in Europe to provide guidelines for future police reform in the United States. This eventually led to the publication of another report by Fosdick on the American police systems, which would remain incomplete until 1920 because of the interruption caused by World WarI.
The publication of his reports meant Fosdick began to gain wider public recognition, leading Secretary of War
Newton Baker
Newton Diehl Baker Jr. (December 3, 1871 – December 25, 1937) was an American lawyer, Georgist,Noble, Ransom E. "Henry George and the Progressive Movement." The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 8, no. 3, 1949, pp. 259–269. w ...
to appoint him as Chairman of the
Commission on Training Camp Activities (CTCA) in 1916 during the Mexican border conflict. He was tasked with tackling social hygiene issues in military training camps, such as diseases linked to the ripe prostitution trade and morally corrupt behaviour due to the availability of alcohol. He advocated that Baker should both publicly condemn and act to suppress alcohol and prostitution to clean up troop camps while providing resources for healthier recreational activities like sports. He then went on to serve as special representative for the War Department in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, administering similar prohibitions for troops on the
Western Front.
At the end of the First World War, Fosdick became a civilian aide to
General John J. Pershing
General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the We ...
during the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919. He was instructed to spend time on the field with American troops and use his expertise to write up reports about their overall morale. Fosdick would subsequently be appointed by President Wilson as Undersecretary to the provisional organisation of the League of Nations, all while being personally concerned that he was not qualified for such an immense task. He would later resign, after less than a year in office due to the U.S. Senate's failure to ratify the Covenant of the League of Nations. Disappointed, he would nevertheless continue to be a strong internationalist public voice in support of the Wilsonian dream of the League of Nations, notably through his function as President of the League of Nations Non Partisan Association.
Relationship with Rockefeller
After leaving his position at the League of Nations, Fosdick established a law firm with two partners,
James. C Curtis and Chauncey Belknap, with John D. Rockefeller Jr. being his first client. This marked the beginning of an even closer partnership between the two men.
Fosdick advised Rockefeller Jr. on labour relations in businesses in which he had an interest in. He became chairman of the Industrial Relations Counselors Inc., which attempted to prevent labour relations crises from impacting Rockefeller Jr.'s public image and portray him as a "liberal industrial statesman".
Fosdick used his role as an adviser to Rockefeller to nudge the latter's ardent support for prohibition. He used his position to progressively distance Rockefeller Jr from his association with prohibitionist lobbying groups such as the
Anti-Saloon League
The Anti-Saloon League (now known as the ''American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems'') is an organization of the temperance movement that lobbied for prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century.
Founded in 1893 in Oberl ...
. Rockefeller was eventually brought round to Fosdick's view on the issue, commissioning him to the Liquor Study committee on alcohol regulation problems.
As a result of his close professional relationship with Rockefeller Jr., Fosdick also served as a trustee on numerous philanthropic organisations linked to the Rockefeller foundation including the
General Education Board The General Education Board was a private organization which was used primarily to support higher education and medical schools in the United States, and to help rural white and black schools in the South, as well as modernize farming practices i ...
and International Education Board. He was also pivotal in the creation of philanthropic organisations such as the
China Medical Board China Medical Board, Inc. (CMB; ) is a nonprofit organization that promotes health education and research in the medical universities of China and Southeast Asia. Its mission is "to advance health, equity, and the quality of care in China and Southe ...
, which was created by Rockefeller Jr. as a result of Fosdick's earlier survey of China's medical problems. Between 1920 and 1935, Fosdick became an integral part of the Rockefeller Foundation as a trustee and its various philanthropies, serving as a leading voice and adviser to Rockefeller Jr.
President of the Rockefeller Foundation
In 1936, Fosdick became the president of the Rockefeller Foundation and served for the next twelve years. He was the fourth president after John D. Rockefeller Jr.,
George E. Vincent
George Edgar Vincent (March 21, 1864 – February 2, 1941) was an American sociologist and university president.
Biography
He was born at Rockford, Illinois, the son of Bishop John H. Vincent. He studied at Yale, where he was a member of De ...
, and
Max Mason
Charles Max Mason (–), better known as Max Mason, was an American mathematician. Mason was president of the University of Chicago (1925–1928) and president of the Rockefeller Foundation (1929–1936).
Mason's mathematical research inte ...
. His position as president meant he had to step down from other positions elsewhere, most notably the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association. His long history of involvement in philanthropic and internationalist circles had led to numerous trustee positions, all of which he saw as being a conflict of interests to his new position.
Under his leadership, the Rockefeller Foundation flourished. Previously, the foundation had struggled with maintaining internal cohesion and cooperation, with disagreement and rivalry found at every level of the organisation. One of Fosdick's primary goals at the onset was to restore harmony, and, within eighteen months, he had implemented numerous policy changes that brought the various factions back together and rejuvenated the atmosphere at the foundation.
One of the achievements Fosdick was most proud of was the development of a yellow fever vaccine, which had been an ongoing project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation for many years. The foundation also played an important role in the Mexican Agricultural Program, which was a revolutionary plan that started in 1943 to maximise crop production and would go on to kickstart the
Green Revolution
The Green Revolution, also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period of technology transfer initiatives that saw greatly increased crop yields and agricultural production. These changes in agriculture began in developed countrie ...
. Other key achievements were stopping the sudden invasion of
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
into South America and the spread of modern medicine throughout China.
Due to his strong passion for internationalism, Fosdick pushed the foundation beyond the impressive research capabilities it had developed to put greater focus on international knowledge dissemination. This meant that rather than handing out a few large research awards, the foundation would focus on distributing a larger amount of small grants around the world.
His desire for cooperation and internationalism, which he had hoped would draw the world together at a time of heightening tensions, was dashed in 1939 when the Second World War broke out. It didn't take him by surprise though, as in the years leading up to the war he worried about the increasing tide of totalitarian regimes and what he called the impending "intellectual blackout", where the academic and research links that the foundation had fostered internationally would be snuffed out. Fosdick had done his best to avoid this conclusion by continuing to support research and other programs regardless of politics, even in
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, until the war began.
World War II would go on to be a defining period of Fosdick's presidency. It was a disaster for the foundation, as the research and values it had sought out for years suddenly began to crumble. In his autobiography, Fosdick wrote:
World War II was a disaster for The Rockefeller Foundation as it was for all agencies everywhere that were dedicated to human welfare. We saw the destruction in wide stretches of Europe and Asia of the libraries, laboratories and public health institutes which Vincent and Rose had so hopefully fostered. An even greater tragedy was the disappearance or death around the world of hundreds of trained peoples – doctors, nurses, scientists and scholars – who represented the promise of the future, and whose creative work the Foundation had supported over long years.
Fosdick's focus immediately went to preservation. One of their first objectives was to rescue academics and researchers who were displaced or endangered. By 1945, the Rockefeller Foundation had saved 303 scholars, including seven
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winners – two of whom would go on to be a part of the atomic bomb project. The foundation also helped develop detailed maps of Europe that laid out important cultural monuments and distribute them to Allied bombing headquarters, as a way to protect these historical structures during military operations.
Additional efforts included providing thirty-four million yellow fever vaccine doses to the Allied forces and sending doctors into the city of Naples to deal with a typhus epidemic shortly after being captured by Allied armies. They also funded microfilming projects across England, to preserve historical books and documents from the German bombing raids. After the war, the foundation also funded the rebuilding and restocking of laboratories and libraries throughout Europe. The most controversial role of the foundation was the fact that twenty-three of the leading scientists on the atomic bomb project had their specialized training paid for through fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, a fact that would leave Fosdick uneasy for years after the end of the war.
In 1948, at the age of sixty-five, Raymond Fosdick retired from the Rockefeller Foundation. During his time as president of the foundation, 200 million dollars were spent towards developing research and academic studies as well as protecting human welfare.
After his retirement, he spent three years writing The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation, a history of the foundation from its inception. It was published in 1952. He would also go on to write John D. Rockefeller Jr.: A Portrait, a biography published in 1956.
Family life
Fosdick married his first wife, Winifred Finlay, in
Montclair, New Jersey
Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. As ...
on December 2, 1910. Winifred had struggled with her mental health and was seeking treatment for a nervous disorder. On April 4, 1932, she committed suicide after killing their two children: Susan 15 years of age and Raymond Jr. who was nine years old at the time. In Fosdick's personal autobiography, he mentions the personal grief he felt after reading his wife's letters, realising that her mental deterioration was much worse than he initially thought. Fosdick eventually remarried in April 1936 to his second wife Elizabeth Miner, a
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
graduate who also worked on his staff.
Death
Raymond B. Fosdick died in 1972 at age 89, in Newtown, Connecticut.
[Brown and Fee 1285.]
Selected publications
''Princeton Verse''.Buffalo: Hausauer, Son & Jones Co. (1904).
''European Police Systems''(1915)
''American Police Systems''(1920)
''Crime in America and the Police''(1920)
''Police Administration''(1921)
''Our Machine Civilization''(1922)
* ''Toward Liquor Control'', with Albert L. Scott (1933)
* ''The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation'' (1952)
*
''John D. Rockefeller Jr., A Portrait'' (1956)
* ''Chronicles of a Generation: A Autobiography'' (1958)
* ''Adventures in Giving: The Story of the General Education Board'' (1962)
Notes
References
* Bristow, Nancy K. ''Making Men Moral: Social Engineering During the Great War''. NYU Press, 1996. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qfm6b.
* Brown, Theodore M., and Fee, Elizabeth. "Raymond B. Fosdick (1883-1972): ardent advocate of internationalism" American journal of public health vol. 102,7 (2012): 1285
* Revoldt, Daryl L. "Raymond B. Fosdick: Reform, Internationalism, and the Rockefeller Foundation." Order No. 8129510 The University of Akron, 1982. Ann Arbor: ''ProQuest.'' Web. 5 Mar. 2019.
* Folly, Martin H., and Niall A. Palmer. ''Historical Dictionary of U.S. Diplomacy from World War I through World War II.'' Scarecrow Press, 2010. Print.
* Ford, Nancy G. ''The Great War and America: Civil-Military Relations during World War I: Civil-Military Relations during World War I.'' Praeger Security International, 2008. Print.
* Fosdick, Raymond B. ''Annals of the Fosdick Family''. The American Historical Company Inc., 1953, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89061681656;view=1up;seq=12.
* Fosdick, Raymond B. ''Chronicle of a Generation: An Autobiography.'' New York: Harper, 1958. Print.
* Fosdick, Raymond B. ''European Police Systems'', Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology (2016) vol.6 28
* Fosdick, Raymond B. 1883-1972. American Police Systems. New York: The Century co., 1920.
* Miller, Laura A. "Fosdick, Raymond Blaine (09 June 1883–18 July 1972)." American National Biography. October, 2015. Oxford University Press,. Date of access 21 Feb. 2019, <
http://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-2001943>
* "Raymond B. Fosdick Weds." The New York Times. 3 Dec. 1910: Archives. Web. 1 March. 2019.
* Sandos, James A. "Prostitution and Drugs: The United States Army on the Mexican-American Border, 1916-1917." ''Pacific Historical Review'', vol. 49, no. 4, 1980, pp. 621–645. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/3638970.
* United Press. "LAWYER'S WIFE KILLS CHILDREN, TAKES OWN LIFE." ''The Healdsburg Tribune'', 4 Apr. 1932, p. 1, cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HT19320404.2.14&e=-------en—20–1--txt-txIN--------1.
* Venzon, Anne C. ''The United States in the First World War : An Encyclopedia.'' Routledge, 1995.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fosdick, Raymond B.
1883 births
1972 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American writers
Presidents of the Rockefeller Foundation
New York Law School alumni
People from Buffalo, New York
New York (state) Republicans