Edward Coleman Delafield


Edward Coleman Delafield was an American banker and soldier who served as president of the Bank of America.

Early life

Delafield was born on July 10, 1878 in Westhampton, New York. He was a son of Maturin Livingston Delafield and Mary Coleman Delafield , Julia Livingston Longfellow, Mary Livingston Finch, Harriet Coleman Carter, and Eugene Livingston Delafield.
His paternal grandparents were Maj. Joseph Delafield and Julia Delafield. Her maternal grandparents were Eugene Augustus Livingston and Harriet Livingston.
Delafield graduated from Princeton University in 1899.

Career

After his graduation from Princeton, Delafield went into banking and in 1914 was made vice president of the Franklin Trust Company, followed by president two years later. In 1920, the institution merged with the Bank of America. In 1930, Bank of America sold the charter for its California affiliate and name to the Bank of Italy, which had merged with the smaller Bank of America, Los Angeles in 1928, under founder Amadeo P. Giannini. In 1931, Delafield's remaining trust company merged with the City Bank Farmers Trust Company.
In 1937, he became a founding senior partner in Delafield & Delafield, the investment counselling and New York Stock Exchange member stock brokerage firm. He turned management over to other family members, but returned in 1968 before officially retiring in 1970.

Philanthropy

From 1946 to 1968 Delafield was the Treasurer and a member of the board of trustees of Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases later known as the Sloan-Kettering Institute.
In 1965, Delafield donated a 13-acre property in Riverdale, known as Fieldston Hill, to Columbia University, which renamed it the Delafield Botanical Garden at Columbia University. The parcel was part of an original estate purchased by his grandfather, Maj. Joseph Delafield, in 1829 and known as "Fieldston", on the Hudson River, between the southern part of Yonkers and the Spuyten Duyvil.

Personal life

Delafield was twice married. In 1900, he married Margaretta Stockton Beasley. At the wedding, his brother, Joseph L. Delafield, was the best man, and ushers were his brother, J. Ross Delafield, his wife's cousin Percy Rivington Pyne II, Alexander M. Hadden, Princeton tennis star Mercer Beasley, III and Robert Southard. She was the niece of Moses Taylor Pyne, a grandson of Moses Taylor and of a family long associated with National City Bank. Before their divorce, Margaretta and Edward were the parents of:
In 1928, he remarried to Clelia C. Benjamin. Clelia, a college friend of his daughter Margaretta, was the daughter of Baroness Rachele Maria Carolina "Carina" Benjamin of Florence and , publisher of The Collector, a journal of autographs and history. Clelia's sister Mary was married to Harold Gould Henderson, her grandfather was Park Benjamin Sr. and her uncle was Park Benjamin Jr.
Delafield died at his home in Sarasota, Florida on April 21, 1976.

Descendants

Through his son Maturin, he was the grandfather of Mary Lyon Hoddick and Maturin Livingston Delafield.