Edward Harkness

Edward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his familys Commonwealth Fund, Harkness gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Northeastern United States were among the largest of the early twentieth century. His was a major benefactor to the Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University, Phillips Exeter Academy, St. Pauls School, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Harkness was born in Cleveland, Ohio, one of four sons of Anna M. Harkness and Stephen V. Harkness, a harnessmaker who invested in and was one of the five founding partners in the forerunner of Standard Oil, John D. Rockefellers oil company. Stephen Harkness died when Edward was fourteen, leaving his wife and oldest son, Charles, to manage the estate. Harkness attended St. Pauls School and Yale College, Class of 1897 and Columbia Law School. Harkness, his brother Charles, and cousin William were members of Wolfs Head Society at Yale.

Source: Wikipedia