Raymond Orteig (1870–1939) was the New York City hotel owner who offered the Orteig Prize for the first non-stop transatlantic flight between New York and Paris.
Orteig was born in the south of France, in Louvie-Juzon, Béarn, but emigrated at age 12, arriving in New York on October 13, 1882 to join an uncle living in New York. He started working as a bus boy and cafe manager but soon managed to acquire two hotels (the Hotel Lafayette and the Brevoort Hotel in Greenwich Village).
Orteig offered the prize in 1919 after attending a dinner honouring the American ace Eddie Rickenbacher. Many of the speeches involved Franco-American friendship and Rickenbacher had looked forward to the day that the two countries were linked by air. He was also strongly inspired by contact with French pilots, members of a French mission sent during World War I, in 1917-18, to New York to help the USA build the US Air Force.
The prize was won in 1927 by Charles Lindbergh.
Biography (in French) : Du Béarn a New York, Raymond Orteig (1870–1939), mecene de l'aviation by Alain J-B. Lalanne, ed.Marrimpouey, Pau, France.