John W. Campbell (financier)
John Williams Campbell (1880–1957) was a millionaire American financier and railroad executive. He kept an office at Grand Central Terminal in New York City, which was later converted into a bar called the Campbell Apartment, a popular gathering spot for commuters and others after work.
For other people named John Campbell, see John Campbell (disambiguation).Biography[edit]
Campbell was the son of John H. Campbell, the treasurer of Credit Clearing House, a credit-reference firm specializing in the garment industry. The younger Campbell had two sisters and an older brother. The family lived on Cumberland Street, in the affluent Brooklyn neighborhood known as The Hill, now called Fort Greene.
Having never attended college, Campbell started work at 18 at his father’s firm, where he became a senior executive at 25 and later president and chairman. In 1941, Credit Clearing House merged with Dun & Bradstreet.
He married the former Rosalind D. Casanave, nicknamed Princess, who was once listed in The New York Times as a "patroness" of a "Monte Carlo party and dance" at the Westchester Country Club.[1]
In 1920, at the age of 40, Campbell was appointed to the board of New York Central Railroad, where he crossed paths with William Kissam Vanderbilt II, the railroad scion whose office was in Grand Central Terminal. It is probable that Vanderbilt showed Campbell the space. Campbell became chairman of the board of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, keeping the position until he died in 1957.[1]