William Henry Draper Jr. (August 10, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American army officer, banker, government official, and diplomat.

Early life

William Henry Draper Jr., was born on August 10, 1894 in Harlem, New York City. His parents were Mary Emma ( née Carey) Draper (1872–1960) and William Henry Draper (1859–1929). Draper received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

and

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in economics at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Career

Draper joined the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

soon after finishing college and served during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

as a major in the infantry. After the war, he stayed in the Army Reserves and worked his way up to chief of staff of the 77th Division from 1936 to 1940. From 1919 to 1921, he worked for National City Bank in New York City. He later worked for

Bankers Trust Company Bankers Trust was a historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons in 1997 before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. Deutsche Bank sold the Trust and Custody division of Bankers Trust to State Street Corpo ...

from 1923 to 1927, and then Dillon, Read & Co. from 1927. In 1937, he was made a vice president of Dillon Read. Dillon Read promoted bonds of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

after its recognition by the

US government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

in 1933. Dillon Read also underwrote millions of dollars worth of German industrial bonds in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. He worked for Dillon Read until 1953.

Public service

At the invitation of

George Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the US Army under Pre ...

, he moved to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, to serve on the President's Advisory Committee for

Selective Service The Selective Service System (SSS) is an independent agency of the United States government that maintains information on U.S. citizens and other U.S. residents potentially subject to military conscription (i.e., the draft) and carries out contin ...

, and he was promoted to colonel in 1940. At the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he took command of the 136th Infantry, 33rd Division, National Guard. At the end of the war, he was promoted to brigadier-general and was posted to Berlin to serve as chief of the Economics Division, Allied Control Council for Germany from 1945 to 1947. He opposed the

Morgenthau Plan The Morgenthau Plan was a proposal to eliminate Germany following World War II and eliminating its arms industry and removing or destroying other key industries basic to military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industr ...

, which was designed to prevent a resurgence of German economic and military power by deindustrializing it and turning into a pastoral country. Instead, he strongly supported measures to expedite Germany's economic recovery along liberal free-market and democratic lines followed by

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...

and Ludwig Erhard. There was some criticism of him by the Chief of the Decartelization Branch for Military Government in Germany after World War II, James Stewart Martin for leaving some former Nazis in their positions in industry, in particular

Alexander Kreuter Alexander Kreuter (November 29, 1886, in Speyer – September 27, 1977) was an influential German business lawyer and banker during the Nazi occupation of France. Education and early career Kreuter studied law and political science at the Univer ...

. After a promotion to major-general, Draper was asked by the new

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

Kenneth C. Royall Kenneth Claiborne Royall, Sr. (July 24, 1894May 25, 1971) was a U.S. Army general, and the last man to hold the office of Secretary of War, which secretariat was abolished in 1947. Royall served as the first Secretary of the Army from 1947 to 194 ...

to become his Under Secretary of War. With the transition of the Department of War to the Department of the Army, Draper became the first under secretary of the Army from September 18, 1947, to February 28, 1949. Later in 1949, he rejoined Dillon Read as a senior partner. According to the Annenberg CPB documentary "The Pacific Century, Ep.5 Reinventing Japan" Gen. Draper, referred to therein as the "Wall Street General" was instrumental in overturning some key progressive reforms sought by Colonel Charles Kades of the Supreme Command Allied Powers (SCAP) in occupied Japan. Draper served as Long Island Rail Road trustee from 1950 to 1951. He served as the first US Ambassador to NATO in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Hiss Case involvement

On August 7, 1948, Draper, then Undersecretary of War, requested that William L. Marbury Jr. fly to Geneva, Switzerland, and spend a month there to help the U.S. negotiate the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Marbury was a close friend of Alger Hiss. Draper's request came days after

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938) ...

had included Hiss's name among those of government spies in the

Ware Group The Ware Group was a covert organization of Communist Party USA operatives within the United States government in the 1930s, run first by Harold Ware (1889–1935) and then by Whittaker Chambers (1901–1961) after Ware's accidental death on Augu ...

during Chambers' testimony under subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In effect, the request prevented Marbury from helping during Hiss's further HUAC testimony in August and into September, when Hiss was considering a libel suit against Chambers for statements made August 27 on NBC Radio's nationwide ''

Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...

'' broadcast.

Later career

After retiring from public service a second time, he traveled to in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

to serve as chairman of the

Mexican Light and Power Company Mexican Light and Power Company was a Canadian-owned electrical generation and distribution company in Mexico founded in 1902 or 1905. References {{Reflist External links The Necaxa development of the Mexican light and power companyMexico - Second ...

. Returning to the U.S. in 1959, he formed the first West Coast

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

firm Draper, Gaither and Anderson in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. In 1967, he retired from Draper Gaither, moved to Washington, D.C. and joined

Combustion Engineering Combustion Engineering (C-E) was a multi-national American-based engineering firm that developed nuclear steam supply power systems in the United States. Originally headquartered in New York City, C-E moved its corporate offices to Stamford, Connec ...

in New York as chairman, retiring a few years later to become the U.S. delegate to the United Nations Population Commission, serving from 1969 to 1971. He also cofounded the Population Crisis Committee in 1965 and chaired the Draper Committee.

Personal life

On September 7, 1918, Draper was married to Katherine Louise Baum, a daughter George Baum of

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...

. Before her death in 1942, they were the parents of three children, including: * Dorothy Draper (1920–2017), a graduate of

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the ...

who married Lt. James R. Wagner, USNR, who was killed In action in the

European theatre of World War II The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with the ...

. She joined

WAVES Waves most often refers to: *Waves, oscillations accompanied by a transfer of energy that travel through space or mass. *Wind waves, surface waves that occur on the free surface of bodies of water. Waves may also refer to: Music *Waves (band) ...

and later married Phillips Hawkins in 1947. * Katherine Louise Draper (1922–2021), also a graduate of

who married George Dow Haimbaugh Jr. in 1960. *

William Henry Draper III William Henry Draper III (born January 1, 1928) is an American venture capitalist. Early life Draper was born on January 1, 1928, in White Plains, New York, the son of Katherine Louise (née Baum) and banker, general, and diplomat William Henry ...

(b. 1928), a venture capitalist who was the founder of

Sutter Hill Ventures Sutter Hill Ventures is an American private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in technology-based start-up companies. Founded in 1964, Sutter Hill is one of the oldest venture capital firms still in operation. Based in Palo Alto ...

. On March 12, 1949, he remarried to Eunice Barzynski, a daughter of Brig.-Gen. Joseph E. Barzynski. Draper died on December 26, 1974 of a heart attack in

Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...

. After a funeral in Fort Myer, he was buried at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

Descendants

Through his son William, he was the grandfather of actress

Polly Draper Polly Carey Draper (born June 15, 1955) is an American actress, writer, producer, and director. Draper has received several awards, including a Writers Guild of America Award (WGA), and is noted for speaking in a "trademark throaty voice." She g ...

and venture capitalist

Timothy C. Draper Timothy Cook Draper (born June 11, 1958) is an American venture capital investor, and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ),

who founded

Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in enterprise, consumer and disruptive technologies. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth ...

. Through his grandson Timothy, he was a great-grandfather of venture capitalist and television personality

Jesse Draper Jessica Cook "Jesse" Draper (born January 5, 1986) is an American venture capitalist and TV personality. Early life Draper is the daughter of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Timothy C. Draper and Melissa Lee ( Parker) Draper. Her paternal gran ...

. Through his granddaughter Polly, he was a great-grandfather of

Nat Wolff Nathaniel Marvin Wolff (born December 17, 1994) is an American actor and musician. He gained recognition for composing the music for '' The Naked Brothers Band'' (2007–2009), a Nickelodeon television series he starred in with his younger bro ...

and

Alex Wolff Alexander Draper Wolff (born November 1, 1997) is an American actor and musician. He first gained recognition for starring alongside his older brother Nat in the Nickelodeon musical comedy series '' The Naked Brothers Band'' (2007–09), which ...

, who are both actors and musicians.

References

External links

Oral History Interview with General William H. Draper Jr.
January 28, 1952 *

* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Draper, William Henry Jr. 1894 births 1974 deaths Long Island Rail Road people People from Harlem United States Army generals Permanent Representatives of the United States to NATO American venture capitalists United States Under Secretaries of the Army New York University alumni Draper family United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army generals of World War II New York (state) Republicans Washington, D.C., Republicans California Republicans