William Barret Ridgely (July 19, 1858 – April 30, 1920) was a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Comptroller of the Currency The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury that was established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter, bank regulation in the United States ...

from 1901 to 1908.

Biography

William B. Ridgely attended

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

, where he was a member of the

Chi Phi Chi Phi () is considered by some as the oldest American men's college social fraternities and sororities, fraternity that was established as the result of the merger of three separate organizations that were each known as Chi Phi. The earliest o ...

fraternity. Upon his graduation from RPI in 1881, Ridgely engaged in mining, manufacturing, and banking in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

before President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

named him Comptroller in 1901.William B. Ridgely: Recently Appointed Comptroller Of The Currency
''The Successful American'', p. 600 (November 1901) During his term, Congress passed legislation extending the corporate existence of the national banks for the second time. Ridgely resigned as Comptroller to accept the presidency of a national bank in

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, which had failed the previous year and was reorganized under his leadership. In 1909 he returned to private business in the Eastern states. Ridgely died in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 1920.

References

Comptrollers in the United States United States Comptrollers of the Currency Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni 1859 births 1920 deaths Theodore Roosevelt administration personnel {{US-gov-bio-stub