Chatfield-Taylor was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 19, 1893. He was the eldest of three sons and one daughter born to Rose Chatfield-Taylor by Hobart Chatfield-Taylor, an author and biographer who was considered a top authority on Molière. His siblings were Robert, Otis, and Adelaide Chatfield-Taylor. After his mother died in 1918, his father married Estelle Stillman, the widow of George S. Stillman and daughter of George Harrison Barbour, in 1920. His paternal grandparents were Henry Hobart Taylor and Adelaide Taylor. His father added "Chatfield" to his surname as the stipulation of a large inheritance from his maternal uncle, Wayne Chatfield. His maternal grandparents were U.S. Senator Charles B. Farwell and Mary Eveline Farwell. His maternal aunt Anna Farwell married the composer Reginald de Koven. Wayne was a graduate of St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts and of Yale University. During World War I, he served overseas as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
Career
Chatfield-Taylor began his business career in 1916 with the Central Trust Company of Illinois. Later, he worked for Field, Glore, Ward & Co., an investment banking house in Chicago, becoming vice president of the business in 1927. He was also vice president of the Chicago Investors corporation and a director of the People's Trust and Savings Bank. He also served the government in administrative and advisory capacities from 1933 to 1952. He first joined President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal administration in 1933 as assistant to the Administrator of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration before becoming special advisor to the President on foreign affairs. He joined the Export-Import Bank as a vice president 1935 before succeeding L. W. Robert Jr. as the Assistant Secretary of the Treasuryunder SecretaryHenry Morgenthau Jr. in 1936. He resigned in February 1939 over differences over Treasury policies with Secretary Morgenthau to become the European delegate of the American Red Cross. He returned to government service in October 1940 becoming the Under Secretary of Commerce under Secretary Jesse H. Jones in 1940, serving until 1945. In 1944, he was the federal official who took charge of Montgomery Ward & Co.'s Chicago plant after it was ordered seized by the government and the firm's chairman, Sewell Avery, was removed form the premises by soldiers. In April 1945, resigned from the Commerce Department to return to Export-Import Bank after being elected president. He served in that role until the position was abolished under the Export–Import Bank Act of 1945. Later economic advisor to Paul G. Hoffman in setting up the Economic Cooperation Administration, Chatfield-Taylor was also economic advisor to the European Recovery Program after World War II.
Personal life
On August 22, 1917, Chatfield-Taylor was married to Adele Margaret Blow. Adele, a daughter of George Preston Blow and Adele Blow, was a vice president and co-founder of the National Women's Democratic Club. She also served as vice chairman of the United Nations War Relief and was a board member of the Home for Incurables. Together, they lived at York Hall in Yorktown, Virginia and were the parents of four children, including:
Hobart Chatfield-Taylor, who married Mary Owen Lyon, a daughter of Moncure Nelson Lyon, in 1963. They divorced in 1972.
