Clement Melville Keys (April 7, 1876 – January 12, 1952) was a financier involved in the establishment of many aviation companies including

Curtiss-Wright The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and v ...

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the ...

and TWA. He has been called "the father of commercial aviation in America."

Biography

Keys was born in

Chatsworth, Ontario Chatsworth is a township municipality in south-western Ontario, Canada, in Grey County, located at the headwaters of the Styx River, the Saugeen River, the Sauble River, the Bighead River, the Spey River, and the old Sydenham River. The curr ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

on April 7, 1876 to George Keys, incumbent of St. Paul's Anglican church in the village, and Jessie Margaret Evans, the daughter of an Anglican minister. After completing secondary school in Lindsay, Ontario, he studied

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, and in 1899 became an instructor in English at

Ridley College Ridley College (also known as RC, Ridley) is a private school, private boarding school, boarding and day university-preparatory school located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 20 miles (32 km) from Niagara Falls. The school confers the On ...

in Saint Catharines, Ontario, where he began a series of Saturday morning lectures on national and world affairs. In 1901, he became a

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' covering the railroad beat. Later he was financial editor of the monthly journal '' World's Work''. In 1911 Keys formed an investment counseling firm, C.M. Keys & Company. One of Keys's former students, Casey Baldwin, had remained in contact. Baldwin and university classmate Douglas McCurdy had been involved in

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...

Aerial Experiment Association The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was a Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. The AEA produced several different aircraft in quick succession, with eac ...

, along with

Thomas Selfridge Thomas Etholen Selfridge (February 8, 1882 – September 17, 1908) was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in an airplane crash. He was also the first active-duty member of the U.S. military to die in a crash whil ...

and

Glenn Curtiss Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early a ...

. In 1916, Curtiss approached McCurdy for financial advice in reorganizing his company. McCurdy put Curtiss in touch with Keys, and as a result the latter became an unpaid vice-president for

Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decade ...

. In 1920, Keys assumed controlling interest of the financially troubled company. The company merged with

Wright Aeronautical Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin. It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the ...

in 1929 to form

with Keys as the new company's president. In 1924, Keys invested $10,000,000 in capital to fund National Air Transport with Paul Henderson, the former Assistant Postmaster General. In June 1929, Keys personally bought all shares of Pitcairn Aviation for 2.5 million dollars, and resold them two weeks later to

, which was renamed to Eastern Air Transport and finally Eastern Airlines. Another venture, Transcontinental Air Transport eventually merged with Western Air Express to form Trans World Airlines (TWA). In 1928, Keys set up

as a holding company for shares in a variety of aviation businesses. In 1929, he set up two personal holding companies Aviation Exploration Inc. and Intercontinent Aviation, through which he intended to set up joint ventures for creating airlines around the world. Aviation Exploration Inc. was the original holding company for his interests in the China National Aviation Corporation and a share in Compañía de Aviación Faucett, while through Intercontinent Aviation he organized the creation of '' Compañía Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss'' in September 1929. In 1932, Keys withdrew from the aviation business citing health reasons, but in fact the directors of North American Aviation had discovered that he had embezzled funds in order to settle personal debts incurred from his private speculation in stocks and shares. Nonetheless, he maintained his investment business. In 1942, he went back to the aviation business establishing the C.M. Keys Aircraft Service Company and after World War II helped organize Peruvian International Airways in 1947. He died at his home in

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 ...

on January 12, 1952.

References

External links

Clement Melville Keys
from

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the N ...

Clement M. Keys
at China National Aviation Corporation memorial website {{DEFAULTSORT:Keys, Clement 1876 births 1952 deaths American aviation businesspeople People from Grey County University of Toronto alumni The Wall Street Journal people Airline founders 20th-century American businesspeople