Robert Weeks De Forest, also known as "First Citizen of New York, " was an American lawyer, businessman, and philanthropis.
Background
Robert Weeks De Forest was born on April 25, 1848 in New York City. He was the eldest of four children of Henry G. de Forest and Julia Weeks, a direct descendant in the seventh generation of Jesse de Forest, the French Huguenot exile who recruited the first band of Walloon colonists to emigrate to the New World. Led by Isaac, son of Jesse, these colonists reached New Netherland in 1636 on a ship owned jointly by the De Forest and Van Rensselaer families. Robert spent his early boyhood in Greenwich Village and vicinity.
Education
De Forest prepared for college at Williston Academy, was graduated from Yale with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1870, and then studied for a short time at the University of Bonn.
Meanwhile, he showed a disposition to follow his father's profession, the law. In 1871 he was admitted to the bar and the next year received the degree of Bachelor of Law from Columbia Law School.
Career
In 1872 De Forest entered his father's and uncle's law firm, Weeks, Forester & De Forest. Retiring from this firm in 1874 he became a member of the firm of De Forest & Weeks.
Later, in 1893, he joined his younger brother in organizing the firm of De Forest Brothers, with which he remained until his death. He was an able and successful lawyer with an extensive practice, but apparently he drew no sharp line between his activities as lawyer and business man. For fifty years he was general counsel for the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
He was also associated in the capacity of either president, vice-president, or director for many years with the Hackensack (New Jersey) Water Company, the Dolphin Jute Mills, Seawarren Improvement Company, the New York & Long Branch Railroad, the New Jersey & New York Railroad Company, All America Cables, New York Trust Company, Title Guarantee & Trust Company, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, as well as other business concerns.
He was also president for many years of the Russell Sage Foundation, the Welfare Council of New York City, the Survey Associates, and the National Housing Association. The Prison Association of New York, the New York State Charities Association, and the National Employment Exchange were other organizations to which he gave much time and attention.
Although he was more concerned with the industrial arts, he was greatly interested in the fine arts and in 1889 became a trustee of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1913 he became its fifth president. He and his brother Lockwood de Forest gave to the museum the Indian room from a Jain temple, and in 1922 he and his wifedonated the American Wing.
Because of De Forest's familiarity with the problem of slums in New York City, Theodore Roosevelt, governor of the state, in 1900 appointed him chairman of the New York State Tenement House Commission which drafted and sponsored a new building law which raised the housing standards with respect to light, air, and sanitation. Subsequently Mayor Seth Low appointed him the first commissioner of the New York City Tenement House Department.
Achievements
Robert Weeks De Forest is credited with developing the New York School of Philanthropy and the Russell Sage Foundation.
He was instrumental in founding the Charity Organization Society of New York in 1882, which did so much to coordinate existing agencies of relief; he made the School of Social Work possible; and he was chief organizer and first president of the Provident Loan Society established in 1894.
Financially De Forest was reputed at the time of his death to have been one of America's wealthiest persons.
Personality
For many years De Forest was known as "First Citizen of New York" - not so much because of his business and professional activities but because of his service to humanitarian movements. He had prodigious capacity for work and during his long lifetime he was keenly interested in civic and philanthropic enterprises.
He was a leader in the movement that led to the founding of a national association to fight tuberculosis. He was also a champion of conservation, serving for twenty years as president of the association for the protection of the Adirondacks, and was the leader in the movement which culminated in establishing the state park at Niagara. He was also interested in the parks in and about New York City and was one of those who advocated the regional plan for the metropolitan area. His extensive country estate at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island afforded him opportunity for exerciseand sport, both of which he enjoyed.
Interests
A keen fisherman, for many years De Forest journeyed annually to Canadian waters for salmon fishing.
Connections
On November 12, 1872, De Forest married Emily Johnston, daughter of John Taylor Johnston, one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York.
He died at eighty-three, survived by his wife and their four children: Johnston, Henry Lockwood, Ethel, and Frances Emily.
