Edward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. Through his family's Commonwealth Fund he donated large amount of money to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Northeastern United States, and became one of the most influential philanthropists of the early 20th century.
Background
Edward Stephen Harkness was born on January 22, 1874 in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. His father, Stephen Vanderberg Harkness, was a descendant of William Harkness who emigrated from Dumfries, Scotland, to Massachusetts in the early eighteenth century. After branching out from harness-making to other business enterprises, he became one of the original partners of John D. Rockefeller in the firm of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler and subsequently one of the six original stockholders of the Standard Oil Company.
Edward's mother, Stephen Harkness's second wife, was Anna M. Richardson of Dalton, Ohio. Edward was their second son and the youngest (by nearly ten years) of their four children. He also had an older half-brother.
When Stephen Harkness died in 1888 Standard Oil dominated the American oil industry, his initial investment of less than $100, 000 was mounting into the millions, and young Ned's future as a philanthropist was almost a foregone conclusion.
Stephen Harkness had been a benefactor of a number of local charities, and his widow found herself increasingly drawn into philanthropy, as the family fortune continued to grow under the careful stewardship of her older son, Charles.
Education
Following his father's death, Edward attended St. Paul's School in Concord, N. H. , and went on to Yale, graduating in 1897. He was a shy and modest boy and had to study hard to master his courses. But he made some lifelong friends at college and learned the habit of determined application, which became a part of his personality.
Career
After graduation and a trip around the world, Harkness joined his family in New York and helped his brother administer the Harkness investments. In the early years of his philanthropies Harkness's gifts often paralleled those of his mother. He gave to welfare organizations, to the Presbyterian Church, to cultural groups, and to educational institutions, particularly St. Paul's and Yale.
In 1916 Charles Harkness died, and in that same year his mother, seeking direction and continuity in her benefactions, established the Commonwealth Fund, with her son Edward as its president. Broadly humanitarian in purpose, the Fund over the years gave special attention to child-health and child-guidance programs, to the establishment of rural hospitals, to the sponsorship of educational fellowships, originally confined to students from the British Commonwealth but later expanded on an international scale, and to grants for medical education and medical research. From an initial endowment of ten million dollars, subsequent gifts from Edward Harkness and his wife brought the Fund's total to about $78, 000, 000 by February 1956.
Harkness early showed an interest in the scientific development of medicine and in its potentialities for the prevention of disease as well as its cure. This interest was responsible for one of his most notable benefactions, his contributions to the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. In 1911 he provided the $1, 300, 000 endowment which made possible the affiliation of Presbyterian Hospital with the medical school of Columbia University. A medical center combining the two institutions was obviously desirable.
Harkness was so strongly in favor of a location that would permit future expansion that in 1915 he took an option on a twenty-two-acre site in Washington Heights in New York City. Due to complications and controversies the option lapsed, but Harkness himself quietly acquired the property. Six years later, when the difficulties of financing the huge enterprise were finally resolved, he announced his gift of the site to the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. He also gave an endowment for the hospital itself and funds for the establishment of the Institute of Ophthalmology and for a student dormitory. Because of her son's interest, Mrs. Stephen Harkness also financed a private-patient pavilion at the Medical Center, named in memory of her husband.
Harkness's philanthropies in education were of a pioneering nature and had lasting effects. As a shy college freshman living in a boarding house he had been aware of the difficulties of establishing personal relationships with his fellow students and his teachers. In later years, realizing that the ever-increasing size of student bodies and college classes was making such relationships even more difficult, he developed the idea of decentralizing colleges into small residential units. His thoughts accorded with those of President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard, who in 1928 was delighted to accept Harkness's offer to provide financial support (some $13, 000, 000, as it proved) to launch such a project at Harvard. The result was the famous "House Plan. "
A similar offer which had first been made to Yale and had lapsed unaccepted was renewed in 1930 and this time was gratefully accepted. Recognizing the importance of secondary education, Harkness gave more than $5, 000, 000 to Phillips Exeter Academy for a building program which made possible the reorganization of the school curriculum around the "conference" or "tutorial" system of teaching.
Although Harkness gave many smaller gifts, his principle in the main was to make sizable contributions to a few institutions in the hope of setting examples that would establish new trends in American education. His admiration and respect for the people of the British Isles was shown by the establishment, in 1930, of the Pilgrim Trust, with an endowment of $10, 000, 000. This fund, administered entirely by Britons, was given without restriction other than that it be used for "charitable" purposes. Some of his earlier British benefactions were gifts to St. Andrews University and to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon, England.
In the winter of 1939-40 his strength failed rapidly, and he died suddenly at his New York home of chronic pancreatitis, just a week after his sixty-sixth birthday. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City.
Achievements
Edward Stephen Harkness is perhaps one of the most well-known philanthropists of the 20th century. He was a major benefactor to the Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University, Phillips Exeter Academy, St. Paul's School, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
In 1918, he was ranked the 6th-richest person in the United States by Forbes magazine's first "Rich List, " behind John D. Rockefeller, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie, George Fisher Baker, and William Rockefeller.
Harkness's gifts totaled more than $130, 000, 000. One incomplete list, confined to those of over $5000, contains 1, 332 entries. In his lifelong career as a philanthropist he showed shrewd judgment and common sense as well as patience and kindliness in a role that must have had its lonely and difficult moments. He knew full well the power and the responsibility that was his.
Harkness was honored with a three-page spread in the Yale Banner and Pot Pourri published by the Yale Class of 1940 for his contributions to the University in particular and the world at large.
Harkness was by nature a religious man and supported the work of his church, both financially and by personal attendance, particularly at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, of which his close friend and college roommate, Reverend Henry Sloane Coffin, was pastor.
Politics
Though not deeply interested in politics, Harkness contributed to the presidential campaign of Alfred E. Smith in 1928.
Views
Quotations:
Once, holding a dollar, Harkness said: "A dollar misspent is a dollar lost and we must not forget that some man's work made this dollar. " But another time, when a friend was urging caution in some extensive philanthropy, he said with a twinkle: "What's the use of having money if you can't have the fun of spending it?"
Membership
Harkness was a member of Wolf's Head Society at Yale.
Personality
Sympathetic understanding of other people and tolerance of their views were prominent characteristics of Harkness. He was an excellent listener, always ready to hear differing opinions.
Although not of robust physique, he enjoyed good health.
Interests
Harkness disliked show and ostentation but had a deep appreciation of the beautiful and artistic. He had a special interest in the art of ancient Egypt. As a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art he headed an advisory committee on purchases in this field and bought for the museum its famous Carnarvon Collection.
Politicians
Alfred Emanuel Smith
Connections
In 1904 Harkness married Mary Emma Stillman, the daughter of Thomas Edgar Stillman, a prosperous New York lawyer. She shared her husband's interests, and her intuitive judgment and ready sense of humor complemented his more serious, orderly thinking. They had no children.
