Paul Fitchen
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Paul Russell Fitchen (October 7, 1901 in
Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...
– August 25, 1990 in
Brewster, New York Brewster is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village and the principal settlement within the town (New York), town of Southeast, New York, Southeast in Putnam County, New York, Putnam County, New York (state), New York, United Sta ...
) was an American
banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...
."The Decades" an unpublished biography of Eleanor Fitchen, composed by family members and presented at her memorial service by daughters Anne Burton and Elli Tappan and granddaughter, Jeanne Stewart. He graduated
Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
and the Harvard School of Business Administration to begin a career in banking. Fitchen served for 23 years with the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses the New York (state), State of New York, the 12 norther ...
in banking relations and as an examiner and then with the bank's cash and check handling operations. Paul met Eleanor Beach, daughter of renowned sculptor
Chester Beach Chester A. Beach (May 23, 1881 – August 6, 1956) was an American sculptor who was known for his busts and medallic art. Early life Beach was born in San Francisco, California. He studied initially at the California School of Mechanical Arts ...
, while she was attending
Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...
. Eleanor and Paul were married in the Beach's 17th Street
brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Ty ...
on December 29, 1934, which was their primary residence until Paul retired in 1967. Their first home was an apartment overlooking
Gramercy Park Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park, and the surrounding neighborhood (which is also referred to as Gramercy), in Manhattan in New York City. The approximately park, located ...
where their first child, Douglas, was born in 1936 and their second, Ellen, in 1939. In 1940, accommodations in the brownstone were rearranged for the growing family. Chester and Mrs. Beach moved into an apartment on the top floor and the Fitchens took over the lower floors where their third child Anne, was born in 1943. In 1951, while an officer at the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses the New York (state), State of New York, the 12 norther ...
, Paul Fitchen was invited by the Union Bank of Burma (now Myanmar) to live in
Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...
(now Yangon) for a year to help establish
decimal currency Decimalisation or decimalization (see spelling differences) is the conversion of a system of currency or of weights and measures to units related by powers of 10. Most countries have decimalised their currencies, converting them from non-decimal ...
and a central bank law for that newly independent country. He flew directly there in July while Eleanor led the children, aged 15, 12, and 8, through
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
from where they took a freighter for a slow voyage on to
Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...
. From 1957 until his retirement in 1967, Mr. Fitchen was executive director of the
New York Clearing House The Clearing House is a banking association and payments company owned by the largest commercial banks in the United States. The Clearing House is the parent organization of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., which owns and operates core ...
Association at 100 Broad Street. He was active in civic affairs and was chairman of the Town of Southeast's first Conservation Commission. He and his wife, Eleanor Fitchen, founded and organized ''Southeast Open Spaces'' (SOS), a nonprofit Putnam County land trust, where he became its first president. As the role of the organization changed to protect properties in neighboring towns, the name was changed to ''Save Open Spaces'' and then to The ''Putnam County Land Trust, Save Open Spaces, Inc.'' Paul was also the president of the Brewster Public Library on Main Street in the Village of Brewster Paul Fitchen died at his home in Brewster, N.Y. at age 88, following cancer surgery


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External links


''Putnam County Land Trust, Save Open Spaces, Inc.''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitchen, Paul 1901 births 1990 deaths American bankers Williams College alumni Harvard Business School alumni People from Ithaca, New York People from Brewster, New York People from Southeast, New York 20th-century American businesspeople People from Gramercy Park