Josiah W. Macy, Jr.

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Captain Josiah W. Macy, Jr. (1838?-1876) was a Sea Captain born into a philanthropic family. The elder Josiah Macy established a shipping and commission firm in New York City, after leaving the family home in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where his parents had settled during the early 17th century.

His son, Thomas Macy, and his wife Sarah Macy parented Josiah W. Macy, Jr.

The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation was [http://www.josiahmacyfoundation.org/index.php?section=about_history endowed in the name of Captain Josiah W. Macy, Jr., by his daughter, Catherine "Kate" Everit Macy (1863-1945), in 1930]. Time Magazine in 1930 reported that the Foundation created a fellowship fund for the expenses of [Einstein Dr. Albert Einstein]'s assistant. "First incumbent will be Dr. Einstein's good friend and familiar, Dr. Walter Mayer, mathematician at the University of Vienna."

According to The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation:

"In 1876, prominent philanthropist Josiah Macy, Jr., one of the Captain’s grandsons, died of yellow fever at age 38."

That same website discusses the family history of Josiah W. Macy, Jr., son of Thomas and Sarah Macy, who had settled in Massachusetts during the late 1630s. They earned their money from an oil company that later was incorporated into the Standard Oil Company under the Rockefellers.

Catherine "Kate" Everit Macy (1863-1945), Josiah Macy's granddaughter, married Walter Graeme Ladd, a lawyer and yachtsman who won several yachting prizes, including some with his schooner, The Etak ("Kate" spelled backwards). She continued the Macy family's philanthropic habits throughout her entire life, and by the time of Kate Macy Ladd's death in 1945, the Josiah Macy Foundation had received about $19 million from her and her estate.