Dwight Morrow
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Dwight Whitney Morrow (January 11, 1873–October 5, 1931) was an American businessman, politician, and diplomat.
Born in Huntington, West Virginia, he moved with his parents to Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1875. After graduating from Amherst College in 1895, he studied law at Columbia University and began practicing at the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, in New York City. In 1903, he married Elizabeth Reeve Cutter, his college sweet heart, with whom he would have four children. In 1913, he partnered at J.P. Morgan & Co., the largest, most powerful commercial bank in the United States in this era, financially backing industrial giants such as General Motors and 3M. As a partner at Morgan, he served as a Director on many corporate and financial boards.
With the onset of World War I in Europe, the bank loaned Britain and France large sums of money, and purchased war materials in the U.S. with it. When the United States joined the War, he became the director of the National War Savings Committee for the State of New Jersey; served abroad as advisor to the Allied Maritime Transport Council, as a member of the Military Board of Allied Supply and as a civilian aide. With his proven logistical and intellectual talents, he was moved to France and made chief civilian aide to Gen. John J. Pershing.
In 1925, Morrow was called upon by his old Amherst College classmate, President Calvin Coolidge to head the Morrow Board. In September 1925, Coolidge ordered the court-martial of Col. William L. Mitchell of the Army Air Service for "conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline." Anticipating adverse political reaction to the trial scheduled for November, and desirous of shaping aviation policy to his own economic views, Coolidge asked Morrow to take charge of a board of military, political, and civilian aviation experts to inquire into all aspects of American aviation. The board's report, published before Mitchell's conviction, recommended the creation of an Air Corps within the Army equivalent to the Signal Corps or Quartermaster Corps, which resulted in the establishment of the U.S. Army Air Corps in July 1926.
He was appointed United States Ambassador to Mexico by Coolidge from 1927 to 1930. He was widely hailed as a brilliant Ambassador, mixing popular appeal with sound financial advice. In 1927, he invited famed aviator Charles A. Lindbergh for a good will tour of Mexico. His daughter, Anne Morrow, was introduced and soon engaged to Lindbergh. To thank the town of Cuernavaca, where Morrow had a weekend house, Morrow hired the Mexican Communist artist Diego Rivera to paint a mural inside the Palace of Cortez.
He was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 3, 1931, caused by the resignation of Walter Evans Edge, and at the same time was elected for the term commencing March 4, 1931, and served from December 3, 1930, until his death in Englewood, New Jersey, on October 5, 1931.
[edit] Trivia
- Morrow was a longtime summer resident of North Haven, Maine.
- His brother Jay J. Morrow was a governor of the Panama Canal Zone.
- Dwight Morrow High School, in Englewood, New Jersey, is named in his honor.
- When Morrow was a senior at Amherst College, he was the only one to vote for Calvin Coolidge for the title of "Most Likely to Succeed."
| Preceded by James R. Sheffield |
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico 1927–1930 |
Succeeded by J. Reuben Clark |
| Preceded by David Baird, Jr. |
United States Senator from New Jersey 1930–1931 |
Succeeded by W. Warren Barbour |
