Harold Fowler McCormick

{{Infobox person

| name = Harold Fowler McCormick

| image = Harold Fowler McCormick.jpg

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1872|5|2}}

| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, US

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1941|10|16|1872|5|2}}

| death_place = Beverly Hills, California, US

| burial_place = Graceland Cemetery

| employer = International Harvester Company

| occupation = Businessman

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Edith Rockefeller
|November 26, 1895|December 1921|reason=div}}
{{marriage|Ganna Walska
|1922|1931|reason=div}}

}}

| children = 5

| parents = Cyrus Hall McCormick
Nancy Fowler McCormick

| relatives = McCormick family

}}

Harold Fowler McCormick (May 2, 1872 – October 16, 1941) was an American businessman. He was chairman of the board of International Harvester Company and a member of the McCormick family. Through his first wife, Edith Rockefeller, he became a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1948 he was awarded the Henry Laurence Gantt Medal by the American Management Association and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).Lester Robert Bittel, Muriel Albers Bittel (1978), Encyclopedia of professional management . p. 456

Early life

Harold Fowler McCormick was born in Chicago May 2, 1872, to inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809–1884) and philanthropist Nancy Fowler (1835–1923).{{cite book |title= Family record and biography |publisher= L.J. McCormick |author= Leander James McCormick |author-link= Leander James McCormick |year= 1896 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/familyrecordand00mccogoog/page/n16 303]–304 |url= https://archive.org/details/familyrecordand00mccogoog }}

During the 1890s, he competed in the US National Tennis Championships.{{cite news|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1907/08/11/page/41/article/the-sport-in-which-millionaires-are-champions|title=The Sport In Which Millionaires Are Champions|date=August 11, 1907|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=17 November 2015}}

Career

As an officer of the Aero Club of Illinois, founded on February 10, 1910, McCormick became the third president in 1912, following Octave Chanute and James E. Plew.Young, David M., "Chicago Aviation: An Illustrated History", Northern Illinois University Press, Dekalb, Illinois, Library of Congress card number 2002033803, {{ISBN|0-87580-311-3}}, page 54.Young, David M., "Chicago Aviation: An Illustrated History", Northern Illinois University Press, Dekalb, Illinois, Library of Congress card number 2002033803, {{ISBN|0-87580-311-3}}, page 56.

In 1914, McCormick, Plew, and Bion J. Arnold attempted to form a commuter airline which they announced would begin service in May, "using seaplanes to ferry passengers between various North Shore suburbs and Grant Park and the South Shore Country Club, of which he was a founder. Lake Shore Airline, which had two seaplanes, was intended to be a profit-making venture charging a steep twenty-eight-dollar round-trip fare between Lake Forest and downtown Chicago on four daily scheduled circuits. However, Chicago's irregular weather, especially the crosswinds, made a shamble of schedules, and the airline disappeared before the end of the year."Chicago Tribune, January 25, 1918; Harold F. McCormick, "From My Experiences Concerning Aviation," speeches of December 1 and 8, 1917, before the Psychological Club of Zurich, Switzerland, McCormick Collection, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison.Young, David M., "Chicago Aviation: An Illustrated History", Northern Illinois University Press, Dekalb, Illinois, Library of Congress card number 2002033803, {{ISBN|0-87580-311-3}}, page 57.

McCormick became chairman of the board of International Harvester Company in 1935, replacing his older brother Cyrus Jr. (1859–1936).{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AMi_DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT597 |title=Chicago: Its History and its Builders |volume=4 |chapter=Harold Fowler McCormick |first=Josiah Seymour |last=Currey |publisher=Jazzybee Verlag |date=April 27, 2017 |isbn=9783849648978 |access-date=February 8, 2018}}

Personal life

File:Edith Rockefeller 032.jpg, in 1895]]

On November 26, 1895, he married Edith Rockefeller (1872–1932), the youngest daughter of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. McCormick became the third inaugural trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation. He was also a trustee of the Rockefeller-created University of Chicago. He and Edith resided at 1000 Lake Shore Drive in Chicago and were the parents of five children before their divorce in December 1921:

John Rockefeller McCormick (1897–1901), who died from scarlet fever.
Editha McCormick (1903–1904), who also died young.
Harold Fowler McCormick Jr. (1898–1973), who married Anne Urquhart Brown "Fifi" (née Potter) Stillman (1879–1969), who had previously been married to James A. Stillman, and was the daughter of James Brown Potter and Mary Cora Urquhart.{{cite news |title=Fowler McCormick Dies at 74; Ex-Chairman of Harvester |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/07/archives/fowler-mccormick-dies-at-74-exchairman-of-harvester.html |access-date=2021-11-22 |work=The New York Times |date=7 January 1973}}
Muriel McCormick (1903–1959), who married Elisha Dyer Hubbard (1878-1936), a nephew of Elisha Dyer Jr. and grandson of Elisha Dyer (both Rhode Island governors), in 1931.
Mathilde McCormick (1905–1947),{{cite news |title=MRS. MAX OSER DIES ON COAST; Granddaughter of the Late John D. Rockefeller, Sister of Fowfer McCormick . |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/05/19/87526385.html |access-date=4 May 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=19 May 1947 |url-access=subscription}} who married Wilheim Max Oser (1877–1942), a Swiss riding instructor, in April 1923.{{cite news |title=MRS. OSER GOES TO MOTHER; Rides in Twentieth Century to Bedside of Mrs. McCormick. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/08/18/100793356.pdf |access-date=4 May 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=18 August 1932 |url-access=subscription}}

After his divorce from Edith, and before his second marriage, McCormick sought to fortify himself by undergoing an operation by Serge Voronoff, a surgeon who specialized in transplanting animal glands into aging men with impotency.Grossman, Ron. (March 31, 1985) Chicago Tribune Lost lake shore drive: Mourning an era; Mansions of rich and famous yield to giant condos. Section: Real estate; Page 1. In 1922, McCormick married Polish opera singer Ganna Walska.{{cite news |title=Walska the Bride of H. F. McCormick. Wedded in Quiet Paris Ceremony, With Mr. and Mrs. Malone the Only Witnesses. Posting Of Banns Waived. Official Says Couple Gave an 'Immense Amount' to Poor. Union Illegal in Illinois |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A1FFA355A1B7A93C0A81783D85F468285F9 |quote=Harold F. McCormick of Chicago, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Harvester Company, and Mrs. Alexander Smith Cochran, known to the music world as Mme. Ganna Walska, were married quietly today in the City Hall of the select Passy district of Paris. |newspaper=Associated Press in the New York Times |date=August 12, 1922 |access-date=2012-09-04 }} They divorced in 1931.

File:Grave of Harold Fowler McCormick (1872–1941) at Graceland Cemetery, Chicago.jpg

McCormick died on October 16, 1941, of a cerebral hemorrhage, at his home in Beverly Hills, California.{{cite news |title=Harold McCormick Industrialist, Dies. Chairman of the International Harvester Co., Which His Father, Cyrus, Founded. Sponsored Successful Search for Scarlet Fever Antitoxin. A Supporter of Opera |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/10/17/archives/harold-fflcorfflick-inddstrialistdies-chairman-of-the-international.html |work=New York Times |date=October 17, 1941 |access-date=2010-08-02 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |title=Harold Fowler McCormick |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/csmonitor_historic/access/171507982.html?dids=171507982:171507982&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Oct+17,+1941&author=&pub=Christian+Science+Monitor&desc=Harold+Fowler+McCormick&pqatl=google |agency=Associated Press |date=October 17, 1941 |access-date=2010-08-02 |archive-date=November 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103110037/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/csmonitor_historic/access/171507982.html?dids=171507982:171507982&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Oct+17,+1941&author=&pub=Christian+Science+Monitor&desc=Harold+Fowler+McCormick&pqatl=google |url-status=dead }} He was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

=Legacy=

Orson Welles claimed that McCormick's lavish promotion of Walska's opera career—despite her renown as a terrible singer—was a direct influence on the screenplay for Citizen Kane, wherein the titular character does much the same for his second wife.{{cite book |last1=Welles |first1=Orson |author-link1=Orson Welles |last2=Bogdanovich |first2=Peter |author-link2=Peter Bogdanovich |last3=Rosenbaum |first3=Jonathan |author-link3=Jonathan Rosenbaum |title=This is Orson Welles |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |location=New York, NY |date=1992 |isbn=0-06-016616-9}}