Evening star., 1948-02-03
| Thomas W. Lamont,
Chairman Of Board Of
j. P. Morgan, Dies
BY the kssoeioisd Press

NEW YORK, Feb. 3.-Thomas W.
Lamont. n, a country clergyman's
son who became head of Wall
Streets famed House of Morgan, -
died last night at his winter home
in Boca Grande, Fla.
Death of the board chairman of
j. p. Morgan g. Co. was announced
in New York early today by r. G.
Wasson, a vice president of the
banking firm.
His heart finally gave out" Mr..
Wasson said. The flnancier and
philanthropist had been In poor
health for more than year. He
had been in Florida since early jan
uary.
Mr.. WATSON said the slight, genial
banker died peacefully in his sleep.
At his bedside were his wife and
two OF their four children, Corliss
Lamont and Mrs. G. c. Cunningham.
Began Career In 1903.
Mr.. Lamont's almost legendary
role in the financial world began in
1903. Then SO years old, he became
secretary and treasurer of the newly
organized Bankers Trust Co. His
reputation as a shrewd organizer
and astute hnancier spread rapidly
and eight years later ]. Pierpont
Morgan invited him to become a
partner in J. P. Morgan & Co.
For two decades before the death
of the younger j. P. Morgan in
1943, he was second only to Mr..
Morgan himself in guiding the des-
TIMES of the international banking
house. With Mr.. Morgan's passing,
Mr.. Lamont succeeded him as chair
man of the board and senior officer
of the flrm.
Unlike Mr. Morgan, who was born
to wealth, Mr.. Lamont was the son
of Methodist Episcopal minister
and teacher Of Greek. Mr.. Lamont
described his boyhood days in Hud-
son River Valley pastorates in a
book, MY Boyhood in Parsonage"
published in 1916.
Helped Pay Way Through School.
Mr.. Lamont helped work his way
through Phillips Exeter Academy
and Harvard. Some of his univer
sity expenses were paid by holiday
jobs on newspapers, and following
his graduation in 1892, he became a
reporter on the New York Tribune.
Mr.. Lamont's financial acumen
was used by the Allies in both world
wars. In the first war, he helped to
finance Great Britain and France
In the second, he served as special
consultant to the top secret Com
mittee of Operations Analysis, a
War Department agency designed to
coordinate the might of the Army
Air Forces. In the period between
the two wars, Mr.. Lamont devoted
much of his time to aiding in the
reconstruction of 4 financially
sound Europe.
He, with the late Dwight w. Nor
row of J. P. Morgan & Co., was one
Of President Hoover's principal
financial advisers and the private
telephone wire between the White
House and 23 Wall street was in
constant use during financial crises.
War Debts Moratorium.
After the First World War he
favored the moratorium on war
debts which Mr.. Hoover eventually
declared in 1881. He had conferred
with the President just before the
official announcement Of the ex-
tension of time limits on New York
bank credits to Germany; he shared
with Mr.. Hoover the belief that
the economic depression should be
allowed ito take its course"
When the Second World War
started in 1889, he expressed his
belief that the United States should
avoid armed conflict. He was not
altogether an isolationist, however.
for he participated in the founding
of the Committee to Defend Amer
lea by Aiding the Allies"
Mr.. Lamont bought the New York
Post from Oswald Garrison Willard
in 1918, selling his stock in 1922 to
a syndicate headed by himself. He
sold out January l, 1924, to Cyrus
H. X. Curtis.
Mr.. Lamont's philanthropies in
cluded handsome gifts to Phillips
Exeter and Harvard. In 1945 he gave
the latter school $1,500,000 for an
undergraduate library.
Survivors include his widow, the