Floyd Leslie Carlisle was an American financier and public utility executive.
Background
Floyd Leslie Carlisle was born on March 5, 1881 in Watertown, New York, United States; the youngest of four sons of William Sylvanus and Catherine Rose (Burdick) Carlisle. Both parents were natives of Jefferson County, New York, the Carlisles having moved there about 1820 after several generations in New Jersey. Floyd's father, an expert mechanic in the local Davis Sewing Machine Company, stayed with the company when it moved to Dayton, Ohio
Education
Floyd attended public schools in both Watertown and Dayton. He graduated from Cornell University in 1903, having been president of his sophomore and senior classes and president of the university debating team. He then read law with an uncle and was admitted to the New York bar in 1905.
Career
Carlisle began practice in partnership with a brother, but soon moved into various business ventures. In 1910 he merged two Watertown banks to form the Northern New York Trust Company and became its president, a post he held until 1922. In 1916 he organized a syndicate of local businessmen which purchased the St. Regis Paper Company, of which he was president from 1916 to 1934. Association with the paper industry led to an interest in public utilities. St. Regis utilized waterpower in its operations, and Carlisle, partly on his own and partly on behalf of the company, began acquiring waterpower sites and small electric companies. In 1920 these holdings were consolidated as Northern New York Utilities Company, and subsequently the company began a rapid program of expansion. To profit from financing this expansion, Carlisle formed his own investment banking house, F. L. Carlisle and Company. For a time he was associated with the maverick utility financier Howard Hopson, but after 1927, when the banking house headed by the younger J. P. Morgan launched an ambitious scheme to monopolize the financing of the entire electric utility industry, Carlisle broke with Hopson and joined forces with Morgan. His own holdings were merged with others in 1929 to form Niagara Hudson Power Company, of which he became board chairman, and interconnection of the huge waterpower resources at Niagara Falls with the great markets in New York City was begun. In addition, Carlisle was made chairman of the board of the Consolidated Gas Company, which held together a sprawling network of electric utility companies in and around New York City. Over the course of a few years, Carlisle supervised the corporate reorganization of these several companies as Consolidated Edison. Between them, Niagara Hudson and Consolidated Edison controlled about three-quarters of the electric supply of the state. As a part of Morgan's larger plans, Carlisle was also made a director of various holding companies in the Morgan group, including Columbia Gas and Electric, United Gas Improvement, and the super-holding company, the United Corporation. During the depression of the 1930's utility holding companies fell into disrepute and came under political attack, largely because of the failure of several of them and the indictment of a number of utility executives, including Hopson, Samuel Insull, and W. B. Foshay. Executives in the Morgan group sought to cover their own shortcomings by joining the attack and attempting to see to it that only "bad" holding companies--that is, those outside Morgan's control--were punished. Accordingly, Carlisle struck the stance of a reformer, advised the New Deal in its crusade against the power industry, and was instrumental in the organization of the Edison Electric Institute (1933), whose avowed purpose was to purge the industry of evils and reform it from within. The effort was futile, for holding companies were given the "death sentence" by a federal act of 1935 and the concentrated power of the House of Morgan was broken by banking acts of the period. In his declining years Carlisle resigned many of his corporate directorships and devoted himself increasingly to civic and educational work and to his interests as a sportsman. Like many others in the paper industry, he was interested in conservation and forestry, and he was one of the sponsors of the school of forestry at St. Lawrence University. He was also a trustee of Cornell University. Carlisle was stricken with a coronary embolism in October 1942, at the age of sixty-one, and died soon afterward at his home in Locust Valley, Long Island. He was buried in the family plot in Brookside Cemetery, Watertown.
Achievements
Religion
He was an Episcopalian in religion.
Politics
He listed himself as a Democrat in politics.
Interests
He was an ardent yachtsman, and also won many cups.
Connections
Carlisle was survived by his wife, Edna May Rogers, whom he had married on November 21, 1912, and by their four children: John William, Adele, Floyd Leslie, and Catherine Carlisle.