Albert C. Simmonds Jr.

Simmonds was born on June 21, 1963, at Simmesport in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. He was the eldest child of Albert Carleton Simmonds (1871–1930) and Nonie Adela ({{nee}} Butler) Simmonds (1875–1963).{{cite book |last1=Stafford |first1=George Mason Graham |title=General Leroy Augustus Stafford: His Forebears and Descendants |date=1943 |publisher=Pelican Publishing Company |page=267 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54RYAAAAMAAJ |access-date=2 January 2025 |language=en}} His paternal grandparents were Henry Simmonds and Mary Eliza ({{nee}} Reily) Simmonds. His maternal grandparents were Confederate soldier Thomas Callaham Butler and, his first wife, Jane ({{nee}} Robinette) Butler.

After graduating from Bolton High School in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1917, Simmonds attended Vanderbilt University, graduating in 1922.{{cite book |title=The International Year Book and Statesmen's Who's who |date=1962 |publisher=Burke's Peerage Limited |page=1500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A9y4pw0M2t0C |access-date=2 January 2025 |language=en}} He taught history for a year at the high school in Thomasville, Georgia before attending Harvard University, where he graduated with a Master of Business Administration in 1925.

After Harvard, Simmonds joined the Texas and Pacific Railway Company in New York City. In 1930, he joined the Bank of New York and after subsequent stints as assistant treasurer, assistant vice president and vice president, he was elected to succeed John C. Traphagen as President of the Bank of New York in 1948.{{cite news |title=CHANGES ANNOUNCED Bank of New York and Fifth Ave. Bank Shifts Officers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1948/06/10/archives/changes-announced-bank-of-new-york-and-fifth-ave-bank-shifts.html?searchResultPosition=5 |access-date=5 December 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=June 10, 1948}}{{cite news |title=MERGER IS PLANNED BY TWO OLD BANKS Bank of New York, Founded in 1784 by Hamilton, to Join With Fifth Ave. Bank |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1948/03/11/archives/merger-is-planned-by-two-old-banks-bank-of-new-york-founded-in-1784.html?searchResultPosition=7 |access-date=5 December 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=March 11, 1948}} In 1957, he became chief executive officer and chairman of the bank,{{cite news |last1=Kraus |first1=Albert L. |title=Personality: A 'Country Boy' Goes to Town; Simmonds Is Head of the Oldest Bank in Biggest City |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/07/05/archives/personality-a-country-boy-goes-to-town-simmonds-is-head-of-the.html?searchResultPosition=4 |access-date=2 January 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=July 5, 1959}} serving until his death in 1963.{{cite news |title=A.C. SIMMONDS JR., BANKER, 60, DEAD; Headed Bank of New York --Led State Association |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1963/06/24/archives/ac-simmonds-jr-banker-60-dead-headed-bank-of-new-york-led-state.html |access-date=5 December 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=June 24, 1963}} In 1960 and 1961, he was president of the New York State Bankers Association.{{cite news |title=An Unusual Wall Street Banker; Albert Simmonds Is New Head of State Association He Will Hurry From Parley to Exhibit at Freedomland |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/06/17/archives/an-unusual-wall-street-banker-albert-simmonds-is-new-head-of-state.html?searchResultPosition=3 |access-date=2 January 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=June 17, 1960 |page=43}}

Simmonds also served as a trustee, or director, of the Greenwich Savings Bank, the North American Reassurance Company, the Celotex Corporation, the American Casualty Insurance Company, North American Reinsurance Corporation, the Borden Company, the Valley Forge Life Insurance Company, and the Valley Forge Insurance Company.

On February 28, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois, Simmonds married Mary Adelaide Harding (1904–1994), a daughter of lawyer Victor M. Harding of Hubbard Woods, Illinois.{{cite book |title=The National Cyclopædia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time, Edited by Distinguished Biographers, Selected from Each State, Revised and Approved by the Most Eminent Historians, Scholars, and Statesmen of the Day |date=1968 |publisher=J. T. White Company |page=409 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3DEOAQAAMAAJ |access-date=2 January 2025 |language=en}} They lived together at Indian Trail in Harrison, New York and were the parents of:

• Albert Carleton Simmonds III, who graduated from Yale University in 1959 and served as vice president of the Wyatt Company, an actuarial consulting company in Washington, D.C.;{{cite news |title=Catherine Elizabeth Ryen To Wed John Simmonds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/22/style/catherine-elizabeth-ryen-to-wed-john-simmonds.html?searchResultPosition=10 |access-date=2 January 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=March 22, 1987}} he married Barbara Smith.{{cite news |title=Catherine Ryen Wed To John H. Simmonds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/26/style/catherine-ryen-wed-to-john-h-simmonds.html?searchResultPosition=6 |access-date=2 January 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=June 26, 1988}}
• Diane Deblois Simmonds (1934–1934), who died in infancy.

Simmonds died at the Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on August 15, 1902, and was buried at Greenwood Union Cemetery in Rye, New York. After his death, his widow married insurance executive Duncan M. Findlay of Huntington, New York, in 1964.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Simmonds Married |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/26/archives/mrs-simmonds-married.html?searchResultPosition=2 |access-date=2 January 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=June 26, 1964}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Duncan M. Findlay,{{cite news |title=Duncan Findlay, 87, Ex-Insurance Executive |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/19/obituaries/duncan-findlay-87-ex-insurance-executive.html |access-date=2 January 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=November 19, 1987 |language=en}} was previously married, and divorced, from Eleanora H. Noyes, the daughter of real estate developer Charles F. Noyes who gifted her an interest in the Crown Building in Manhattan,{{cite news |date=January 16, 1946 |title=C.F. Noyes Gets Skyscraper for Grandchildren: In Partnership With Friend, Pays $5,000,000 for 26-Story Heckscher Building Heckscher Building |work=New York Herald Tribune |page=32 |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1331242365}} }}{{Cite news |date=February 14, 1946 |title=5th Ave. Title Passed; Deed Shows Noyes Paid $5,000,000 for Heckscher Building |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1946/02/14/archives/5th-ave-title-passed-deed-shows-noyes-paid-5000000-for-heckscher.html |access-date=June 17, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=June 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240617180015/https://www.nytimes.com/1946/02/14/archives/5th-ave-title-passed-deed-shows-noyes-paid-5000000-for-heckscher.html |url-status=live }} before it was sold by Noyes and Joseph Durst in November 1950.{{cite news |date=November 5, 1950 |title=Florida Agent Buys 25-Story 5 th Av. Tower: Keyes, of Miami, Takes Heckscher Building at 57th St. Corner |work=New York Herald Tribune |page=C1 |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|1335548364}} }}}}

{{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://dp.la/item/3c6dbf2c52c4cfa81c7cb5347ced4eaa Letter from Isaac H. Kempner to Albert C. Simmonds, Jr., April 12, 1963] at the Digital Public Library of America

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simmonds, Albert C.}}

Category:1902 births

Category:1963 deaths

Category:Vanderbilt University alumni

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:American bank presidents

Category:People from Alexandria, Louisiana