Background
Marshall was born on September 28, 1893, in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, he was the son of Albertine Huck and Marshall Field, Jr. Field spent much of his youth in England after his father’s death from an apparent suicide in 1909.
Windsor SL4 6DW, UK
Marshall Field III was educated at Eton College.
The Old Schools, Trinity Ln, Cambridge CB2 1TN, UK
Marshall Field III studied at the University of Cambridge.
Marshall Field, III sitting at desk writing in office. Chicago Daily News, Inc., photographer.
Marshall Field III, as 1st Lieutenant Battery B-2nd Regiment, Illinois.
Silver Star for gallantry in action.
Marshall Field III 1933, is a photograph by Padre Art .
Marshall Field, III sitting at desk writing in office. Chicago Daily News, Inc., photographer.
Marshall Field III, as 1st Lieutenant Battery B-2nd Regiment, Illinois.
Windsor SL4 6DW, UK
Marshall Field III was educated at Eton College.
The Old Schools, Trinity Ln, Cambridge CB2 1TN, UK
Marshall Field III studied at the University of Cambridge.
Marshall Field, grandfather of Marshall Field III.
Evelyn Marshall Field (William Orpen, 1921)
Audrey Evelyn James Coats
Ruth Pruyn Field
banker philanthropist publisher
Marshall was born on September 28, 1893, in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, he was the son of Albertine Huck and Marshall Field, Jr. Field spent much of his youth in England after his father’s death from an apparent suicide in 1909.
Marshall Field III was educated at Eton College and the University of Cambridge.
Marshall joined the 1st Illinois Cavalry and served with the 122nd Field Artillery in France during World War I. After the war, he went to work as a bond salesman at Lee, Higginson & Co. After learning the business, he left to open his own investment business. A director of Guaranty Trust Co. of New York City, he eventually teamed up with Charles F. Glore and Pierce C. Ward to create the investment banking firm of Marshall Field, Glore, Ward & Co. In 1926, Field left the firm to pursue other interests.
In the 1930s he began to take an interest in politics and abandoned his business dealings, leaving the investment-banking firm of Field, Glore, and Company where he was a senior partner in 1936.
It was perhaps his burgeoning concern for political and social issues that inspired Field to turn to journalism. Using the money he had inherited, he invested in a New York newspaper called PM in 1940. This first foray into the newspaper business happened when he was forty- six year old. Later the same year he bought out most of the paper’s other investors, becoming its chief source of financial support even though it was struggling to survive. But to Field, that did not matter much. As Mary Ann Weston writes in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, “For Field, journalism was the culmination of a remarkable personal transformation that took him far from the role expected of one of his lineage - a sheltered life of wealth and privilege - to the unabashed liberalism that led some, according to author John Tebbel, to brand him a ‘traitor to his class.’ ”
In 1945 he wrote a book titled Freedom Is More than a Word. That is the first and only book by Field talks about democracy, education, and the responsibilities that come with having money. Reviewing the book for the Weekly Book Review, Joseph Barnes wrote. “Its strengths are its author’s open-minded belief in trial and error as a social and political principle and a healthy optimism about the future. (Field) is aware of the formidable problems our democracy faces, but confident that there is nothing wrong with us that more democracy won’t cure.”
Field also talks about his choice to back a second newspaper, the Chicago Sun. With the paper from its creation, this time Field took a more hand’s on approach to running the business. First appearing in late 1941, the Sun took an early stance, upon Field’s urging, on the beginning of World War II.
Field maintained his view that the Sun fulfilled Chicago’s crying need for an independent morning paper to rival the right-wing Tribune. Run by Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the Tribune attacked its new competitor. McCormick wrote an editorial in his paper accusing Field of being a “slacker” because he did not volunteer for military service during World War II. The colonel also managed to keep the Sun from having access to the Associated Press wire service, the country’s largest news-gathering agency. This difficulty was eventually settled in a lawsuit. Despite these and other early hardships, Field was determined to make the Chicago Sun into an independent paper that, unlike PM, paid its own way. With an eye to this goal, he bought the fledgling afternoon tabloid, the Chicago Times, in August of 1947 for a sum in excess of $5 million, not including the S2.5 million of the paper’s past debt which he then assumed. The following year Field merged the two papers into a morning tabloid called the Sun-Times.
Field decided to retire from the newspaper business in 1950, turning control of the Chicago Sun-Times over to his son, Marshall Field IV. He continued to support the paper financially, reportedly investing $25 million into it before it started to turn a profit.
Marshall Field III was one of the most prominent American investment banker and publisher. During his era in journalism, Field had established a corporation called Field Enterprises. Among the projects, this company worked on were the publication of World Book Encyclopedias and the Sunday magazine supplement Parade. This company’s broad interests in the field of communications also included four radio stations, the publishing houses Simon & Schuster and Pocket Books, as well as Childcraft children books.
In addition to business ventures, Field was quite active with a number of social and charitable causes. He established the Field Foundation to provide financial aid to resolve issues relating to child welfare and race relations. He helped found the Roosevelt University in Chicago and was a philanthropist to a number of organizations, including the New York Philharmonic Society, the Metropolitan Opera Association of New York, the University of Chicago, and the Chicago Museum of Natural History, which was later renamed the Field Museum because of his support.
Marshall Field III became a staunch supporter of Roosevelt’s New Deal and of U.S. involvement in World War II.
Field supported a number of charitable institutions and in 1940 created the Field Foundation. He donated substantial funds to support the New York Philharmonic symphony orchestra and served as its president.
Field personally served as president of the Child Welfare League of America.
In 1915 Marshall married Evelyn Marshall (the daughter of Charles Henry Marshall), they divorced in 1930. In the same years he married Audrey Evelyn James Coats, they divorced in 1934. In two years he married Ruth Pruyn Phipps, who had previously been married to sportsman Ogden Phipps. They had two daughters, Phyllis Field and Fiona Field.
By his first wife, Evelyn Marshall, he had daughters Barbara Field and Bettina Field and son Marshall Field IV. By his second wife, of whom he was the second husband, Audrey Evelyn James (April 21, 1902 - February 14, 1968), he left no issue.
