Willard Dickerman Straight Willard Dickerman Straight ( January 31 , 1880 – December 1 , 1918 ) was an American investment banker , publisher , reporter and diplomat . Life and career . An orphan , Straight was born on January 31 , 1880 in Oswego , New York . His father had been a faculty member at Oswego Normal School . He attended Bordentown Military Institute in New Jersey , and in 1897 he enrolled at Cornell University and graduated in 1901 with a degree in architecture . While a student at Cornell , he joined Delta Tau Delta , edited and contributed to several publications , and helped to organize Dragon Day , an annual architecture students ' event . He was also elected to the Sphinx Head Society , membership in which was reserved for the most respected men of the senior class . After graduation , Straight was appointed to the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service in Nanjing and worked as secretary to Sir Robert Hart , the Service ' s Inspector General . While in the Far East , he worked as a Reuters correspondent during the Russo - Japanese War , bringing him to Korea in 1904 . In June , 1905 , he became the personal secretary of Edwin V . Morgan , the American consul general in the Kingdom of Korea and American vice - consul in Seoul , Korea . After briefly working in Havana , Cuba , he returned to China in 1906 as American Consul - General at Mukden , Manchuria . While there , he and Ms . Mary Harriman were reportedly romantically involved , but their marriage was prevented by E . H . Harriman , her father . He then went on to work for J . P . Morgan & Co . In April , 1908 , Straight was involved in a diplomatic incident involving a Japanese postman ' s attack on a coolie working for the American consulate whom the Japanese believed to have insulted him : Straight brandished a revolver and sent the Japanese attackers to their government for punishment . Before his engagement to Dorothy Payne Whitney , the society pages reported that Straight was engaged to marry Ethel Roosevelt . Straight married Dorothy Payne Whitney , a member of the prominent Whitney family , at Geneva , Switzerland , in 1911 , after five years of courtship . The Straights moved first to Beijing , then , having adjudged China too unsafe after the Chinese Revolution , back to the United States in 1912 . In 1914 , Willard Straight , his wife , and Herbert Croly began publication of " The New Republic " , a weekly political magazine . In 1917 , they helped found " Asia Magazine " , a prominent academic journal on China . Straight left J . P . Morgan in 1915 and went to work as a vice - president for American International Corporation . In that same year , Straight became involved with the Preparedness Movement . When the United States entered World War I two years later , Straight joined the United States Army ; his service in Europe won him the Distinguished Service Medal and promotion to the rank of major . Willard Straight died in Paris ( where he was arranging the arrival of the American mission to the Paris Peace Conference ) of pneumonia , a complication of the Spanish influenza . His body was buried in the American cemetery at Suresnes , outside of Paris . Legacy . In his life he made major donations to fund the construction of Schoellkopf Memorial Hall , and after his death his wife made a substantial donation to Cornell to build the school ' s first student union building , which was named in his honor . Straight ' s papers are at Cornell University Library , Ithaca , NY . The papers are available in digital form from Cornell University : https : / / ecommons . library . cornell . edu / handle / 1813 / 22047 Children . Children with Dorothy Payne Whitney :