Edward Harkness
Edward Stephen Harkness (January 22, 1874 – January 29, 1940) was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his family's Commonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Northeastern United States were among the largest of the early twentieth century.[1][2] He was a major benefactor to Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University, Phillips Exeter Academy, St. Paul's School, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1934.[3]
Edward Harkness
January 29, 1940 (aged 66)
Charles W. Harkness, brother
Florence, sister
Lamon V. Harkness half brother
Harkness inherited his fortune from his father, Stephen V. Harkness, whose wealth was established by an early investment in Standard Oil, and his brother, Charles W. Harkness.[4] In 1918, he was ranked the 6th-richest person in the United States by Forbes magazine's first "Rich List",[5] behind John D. Rockefeller, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie, George Fisher Baker, and William Rockefeller.
Burial[edit]
Edward and Mary Harkness are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City, which is today a National Historic Landmark.[20] The Harkness family mausoleum is stately and includes a privately walled and locked garden. The mausoleum does not have any name at all on it noting who is buried inside. The architecture of the mausoleum evokes that of a small medieval church.[21]
Legacy[edit]
In addition to the family-funded foundations, Harkness, along with another wealthy neighbor, Edward Crowninshield Hammond, was the inspiration for Eugene O'Neill's off-stage character "Harker", the "Standard Oil millionaire", in Long Day's Journey into Night, and on-stage figure "T. Stedman Harder" in A Moon for the Misbegotten.[22]