Clement Melville Keys (April 7, 1876 – January 12, 1952) was a financier who was involved in the establishment of many aviation companies including

Curtiss-Wright The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is an American manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation (business), consoli ...

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F- ...

and TWA. He has been called "the father of commercial aviation in America."

Biography

Keys was born in Chatsworth, Ontario, on April 7, 1876, to George Keys, incumbent of St. Paul's Anglican church in the village, and Jessie Margaret Evans, the daughter of an Anglican minister. After completing secondary school in Lindsay, Ontario, he studied

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, and in 1899 became an instructor in English at

Ridley College Ridley College may refer to * Ridley College (Melbourne), Victoria, Australia * Ridley College (Ontario), Canada See also * Ridley Hall, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK * * Ridley (disambiguation) {{schooldis ...

in Saint Catharines, Ontario, where he began a series of Saturday morning lectures on national and world affairs. In 1901, he became a

reporter A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' covering the railroad beat. Later he was financial editor of the monthly journal '' World's Work''. In 1911 Keys formed an investment counseling firm, C.M. Keys & Company. One of Keys's former students, Casey Baldwin, had remained in contact. Baldwin and university classmate Douglas McCurdy had been involved in

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

's Aerial Experiment Association, along with Thomas Selfridge and

Glenn Curtiss Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early a ...

. In 1916, Curtiss approached McCurdy for financial advice in reorganizing his company. McCurdy put Curtiss in touch with Keys, and as a result the latter became an unpaid vice-president for

Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Curtiss, Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in ...

. In 1920, Keys assumed controlling interest of the financially troubled company. The company merged with

Wright Aeronautical Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin. It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the g ...

in 1929 to form

with Keys as the new company's president. In 1924, Keys invested $10,000,000 in capital to fund

National Air Transport National Air Transport was a large United States airline; in 1930 it was bought by Boeing. The Air Mail Act of 1934 prohibited airlines and manufacturers from being under the same corporate umbrella, so Boeing split into three smaller companies, o ...

with Paul Henderson, the former Assistant Postmaster General. In June 1929, Keys personally bought all shares of Pitcairn Aviation for 2.5 million dollars, and resold them two weeks later to

, which was renamed to Eastern Air Transport and finally Eastern Airlines. Another venture,

Transcontinental Air Transport Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) was an airline founded in 1928 by Clement Melville Keys that merged in 1930 with Western Air Express to form what became TWA. Keys enlisted the help of Charles Lindbergh to design a transcontinental network t ...

eventually merged with Western Air Express to form Trans World Airlines (TWA). Photograph of Clement Melville Keys circa 1928

In 1928, Keys set up

as a holding company for shares in a variety of aviation businesses. In 1929, he set up two personal holding companies Aviation Exploration Inc. and Intercontinent Aviation, through which he intended to set up joint ventures for creating airlines around the world. Aviation Exploration Inc. was the original holding company for his interests in the China National Aviation Corporation and a share in Compañía de Aviación Faucett, while through Intercontinent Aviation he organized the creation of '' Compañía Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss'' in September 1929. In 1932, Keys withdrew from the aviation business citing health reasons, but in fact the directors of North American Aviation had discovered that he had embezzled funds in order to settle personal debts incurred from his private speculation in stocks and shares. Nonetheless, he maintained his investment business. In 1942, he went back to the aviation business establishing the C.M. Keys Aircraft Service Company and after World War II helped organize Peruvian International Airways in 1947. He died at his home in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on January 12, 1952.

References

External links

Clement Melville Keys
from

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

Clement M. Keys
at China National Aviation Corporation memorial website {{DEFAULTSORT:Keys, Clement 1876 births 1952 deaths American aviation businesspeople People from Grey County University of Toronto alumni The Wall Street Journal people Airline founders 20th-century American businesspeople