William Payne Whitney was born on March 20, 1876. He was the son of William C. Whitney and Flora Payne, and younger brother to Harry Payne Whitney. In addition to a substantial inheritance from his father, Payne Whitney inherited $63,000,000 from his uncle, Colonel
Oliver Hazard Payne.
Whitney was educated at the Groton School. He attended Yale University, where he was a member of Skull and Bones, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and captained the Yale rowing team After graduating in 1898, Whitney then studied law at the Harvard Law School, receiving his Bachelor of Laws in 1901.
Amongst his many investments, Whitney had major holdings in banking, tobacco, railroads, mining and oil. Throughout his life, Payne Whitney was involved in philanthropic work for a variety of causes. A trustee of the New York Public Library, in 1923 he gave the library $12,000,000.
Whitney made charitable contributions to the rowing team at his alma mater, Yale University, including donating funds to build a dormitory for the crew.
Upon his death he made a large bequest to establish the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Whitney died in 1927 at his Greentree estate.
His will bequeathed more than $20 million to the New York Hospital and smaller amounts to other educational and medical institutions. His estate funds contributed to the establishment of the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in 1932.
Although he had contributed $1,000,000 to the Yale Endowment Fund shortly before his death, sufficient estate funds were also given to Yale to enable construction of the 9½ storey Payne Whitney Gym that too was completed in 1932.
As a tribute to him, a road in Manhasset was named after him, Payne Whitney Lane.
He was a member of the board of directors and/or an executive officer of several large corporations, including the City Bank New York, and the Great Northern Paper Company, and the Northern Finance Corporation.
