Seymour Parker Gilbert was an American lawyer, banker, politician and diplomat.
Background
Gilbert was born on October 13, 1892, in Bloomfield, New Jersey, the oldest of four children of Seymour Parker and Carrie Jennings (Cooper) Gilbert. He came of a typical middle-class American family. Both of his grandfathers were small merchants in New Jersey. His father, after whom he was named, was a man of moderate means who carried on a real-estate business and served for several terms in the New Jersey legislature.
Education
Gilbert was eleven years old when he graduated from grammar school and fifteen when he completed his course at the Bloomfield High School, in both cases at the head of his class. He received his A. B. degree from Rutgers College in 1912 after having achieved many academic honors, graduating with the highest average of any student since 1890. Three years later he graduated cum laude from the Harvard Law School, where he had served for two years as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He later received honorary degrees from the universities of Harvard, Columbia, Rutgers, and Lehigh.
Career
Gilbert began his professional career as a law clerk in the New York firm of Cravath & Henderson. His industry and intelligence attracted the particular attention of one of his seniors in the firm, Russell C. Leffingwell, who was soon afterwards appointed an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury by President Wilson. In 1918, after Gilbert had been rejected by the army because of his health, he accepted Leffingwell's invitation to come to the Treasury as counsel in war-loan matters. Succeeding Leffingwell as Assistant Secretary in charge of fiscal affairs in July 1920, he was kept on in the department by the incoming Republican administration. Andrew W. Mellon, the new Secretary of the Treasury, valued Gilbert's services so highly that he had the new post of Under Secretary created especially for him. In his years at the Treasury Gilbert became noted for his extreme diligence and long working hours. A notable achievement during these years was his successful solution of the problem of funding a short-term debt of $7, 500, 000, 000. In November 1923 he retired from his Treasury post and returned to his New York law firm, now become Cravath, Henderson & de Gersdorff. In less than a year, however, on October 30, 1924, he withdrew to take over the post of Agent-General for Reparation Payments from Owen D. Young, the temporary incumbent. On the brilliant administration of this office Gilbert's claim to eminence as a financier primarily rests. A comprehensive account of Gilbert's stewardship is embodied in his official reports, covering the period from September 1, 1924, to May 17, 1930, as contained in the series of volumes entitled The Execution of the Experts Plan. They are characterized by a complete understanding and a lucid presentation of all the complicated forces involved in the reparations problem: monetary, fiscal, foreign-exchange, and political. While occasionally sternly critical, Gilbert expounded sympathetically Germany's difficulties and praised the regular performance of her reparations responsibilities. As early as 1927 Gilbert had begun to urge that Germany's reparations liabilities be reviewed and fixed in final form. Largely as a result of his endeavors, a new committee of experts drew up such an agreement, the Young Plan, in 1929. Gilbert declined, however, the proffered headship of the Bank for International Settlements established under the Plan, and in May 1930 he resigned as Agent-General and returned to the United States to become, early in 1931, a partner in J. P. Morgan & Company. In his new association he did not revert to the law but participated in the financial activities of the firm. These were, because of the depression, more of a remedial and salvaging than of a constructive or developmental type. Yet Gilbert's analytical talents were much depended upon in these matters. He became a director of the Bankers Trust Company and, later, chairman of its executive committee. Since childhood Gilbert's health had been precarious. Faulty diagnosis of an appendicitis attack at fourteen had been followed by a rupture of the appendix and a painful period of recovery. In later years he suffered from hypertension and phlebitis. After seven years with J. P. Morgan & Company, he died at the untimely age of forty-five, of cardio-nephritis, at Doctors Hospital in New York City. He was buried at Southampton, Long Island, the place of his residence.
Achievements
Personality
In appearance Parker Gilbert was tall and blond, "more like a college professor than a financial doctor, " according to one description. His surviving associates all testify to the graciousness, gentleness, and quiet reserve of his manner, the subtlety of his intellect, and the intensity of his industry.
Connections
Gilbert married Louise Ross Todd of Louisville, on Oct. 8, 1924. They had three children.