Background
Seabury Stanton was born on October 9, 1892 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. His father and grandfather had been Yankee whaling captains in New Bedford.
Textile manufacturing executive
Seabury Stanton was born on October 9, 1892 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. His father and grandfather had been Yankee whaling captains in New Bedford.
He attended the local schools, the New Bedford Textile School, and Harvard University, where he graduated in the class of 1915.
Early life and career Hathaway Manufacturing eventually became Berkshire Hathaway after merging with Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates in 1955, becoming the largest surviving textile manufacturer in New England with 15 mills. The company was founded in the nineteenth century with Horatio Hathaway"s profits from whaling and the China Trade, but the textile industry in New England declined after World War I and didn"t recover until after the Great Depression with the outbreak of World World War World War II In the late 1950s the industry was again in decline, facing low-cost competition from elsewhere in the United States and abroad. Jack Stanton was expected to take over as president, but the Stantons were ousted before that took place.
Seabury Stanton was a miller and a manager with an overriding aim to keep the business going but he was not a financial expert and he continued to plough back most of the company’s earnings into working capital, despite ever decreasing cotton prices, resulting from increased competition at home and abroad.
Ouster of Stanton by Buffett In 1962, Warren Buffett began buying shares of Berkshire because he thought the company was selling at a discount to its actual value after noticing a pattern in the price direction of its stock whenever the company closed a mill. Eventually, Buffett acknowledged that the textile business was waning and the company"s financial situation was not going to improve.
In 1964, Stanton made a verbal tender offer of $111⁄2 per share for the company to buy back Buffett"s shares. Buffett agreed to the deal.
A few weeks later, Warren Buffett received the tender offer in writing, but the tender offer was for only $113⁄8.
Buffett later admitted that this lower, undercutting offer made him angry. Instead of selling at the slightly lower price, Buffett decided to buy more of the stock to take control of the company and fire Stanton. Seabury Stanton was Chairman and Director of the Northern Textile Association for many terms and an avid sailor in his free time.
Stanton also published a book on Berkshire, titled " " Stanton died on October 19, 1971 and is buried in the South Dartmouth Cemetery.
Board directors New Bedford Board Commerce, Taxpayers Association, Old Dartmouth History Society and Whaling Museum. Honorary trustee St. Luke's Hospital, New Bedford. Second lieutenant infantry United States Army, 1917-1919, European Theatre of Operations.
Member Northern Textile Association (board directors) Harvard Club, Algonquin Club (Boston), Wamsutta Yacht Club (New Bedford), Key Largo (Florida) Anglers Club.
Married Jean Kellogg Austin, December 21, 1916, children: Jean (deceased 1960), James Easton 3rd, John Kellogg.