Banker, Investor and Yachtsman. Son of DeWitt Clinton Blair (d. 1915); a banker; and Mary Anna Kimball Blair. Grandson of John Insley Blair (1802- 1899); one of the wealthiest men of the 19th Century, with a fortune of seventy million dollars. He received his early education at the Lawranceville School in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton University in 1890. While still a senior at Princeton, he, his father and grandfather helped to find the banking firm of Blair & Company; which would primarily manage the railroads interests of the Gould family; even underwriting a $50 million bond issue to the Gould-owned railroad Western Pacific Railorad in 1899. In April, 1920, he was named chairman of the board of director's after the firm merged with William Salomon & Co., under the new title of Blair & Co. In 1908, Mr. Blair was appointed as an Alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention from New Jersey; which put Taft in the presidency; and again in 1916, which appointed ex-Judge Charles Evans Hughes Jr. to the Supreme Court. An avid yachtsman, he was elected Commodore of the New York Yacht Club; later, though, he donated her 254-foot steel yacht 'Diana' to the U.S. government at the outbreak of World War I. At the outbreak of the war in 1914, Mr. Blair was on the SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie, a North German Lloyd ocean liner, sailing from New York City to Plymouth, England. Nearing Plymouth, news of hostilities forced the ship to turn back. He took the helm and safely piloted the ship to Bar Harbor, Maine, where his father had a summer home. The ship was carrying $10 million in gold and $3.5 million in silver. His country estate, 'Blairsden' in Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey, designed by John Carrère and Thomas Hastings, was the largest home in that country resort. Mr. Blair also resided at homes in Newport, Rhode Island, New York City and in Bermuda.
Banker, Investor and Yachtsman. Son of DeWitt Clinton Blair (d. 1915); a banker; and Mary Anna Kimball Blair. Grandson of John Insley Blair (1802- 1899); one of the wealthiest men of the 19th Century, with a fortune of seventy million dollars. He received his early education at the Lawranceville School in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton University in 1890. While still a senior at Princeton, he, his father and grandfather helped to find the banking firm of Blair & Company; which would primarily manage the railroads interests of the Gould family; even underwriting a $50 million bond issue to the Gould-owned railroad Western Pacific Railorad in 1899. In April, 1920, he was named chairman of the board of director's after the firm merged with William Salomon & Co., under the new title of Blair & Co. In 1908, Mr. Blair was appointed as an Alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention from New Jersey; which put Taft in the presidency; and again in 1916, which appointed ex-Judge Charles Evans Hughes Jr. to the Supreme Court. An avid yachtsman, he was elected Commodore of the New York Yacht Club; later, though, he donated her 254-foot steel yacht 'Diana' to the U.S. government at the outbreak of World War I. At the outbreak of the war in 1914, Mr. Blair was on the SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie, a North German Lloyd ocean liner, sailing from New York City to Plymouth, England. Nearing Plymouth, news of hostilities forced the ship to turn back. He took the helm and safely piloted the ship to Bar Harbor, Maine, where his father had a summer home. The ship was carrying $10 million in gold and $3.5 million in silver. His country estate, 'Blairsden' in Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey, designed by John Carrère and Thomas Hastings, was the largest home in that country resort. Mr. Blair also resided at homes in Newport, Rhode Island, New York City and in Bermuda.
