George Alexander Spater (May 3, 1909 – June 14, 1984) was chairman of

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

from 1968 until 1973, when he became the first of several corporate executives to voluntarily admit having made illegal corporate contributions to

President Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 36th vice president under P ...

's re-election campaign. After retiring from American Airlines, he wrote well-regarded biographies of

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

and

William Cobbett William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an Agrarianism, agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restr ...

Biography

Early life

He was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, graduated from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 1930 with an A.B. degree magna cum laude. He was associated with the ''

Michigan Daily ''The Michigan Daily'', also known as "''The Daily''", is the independent student newspaper of the University of Michigan published in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Established on September 29, 1890, the newspaper is financially and editorially independe ...

'' there. He earned a law degree from

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (branded as Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparati ...

in 1933. In 1935 he was admitted to the bar. He spent most of his law career working in aviation advising in particular

Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...

and

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 ...

(forerunner of TWA). He worked at Chadbourne, Parke, Whiteside and Wolff in New York and was a partner there in 1942–1958.

American Airlines

He left Chadbourne in 1959 to join American Airlines as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. He was elected Vice Chairman in 1967 and President and Chief Executive in 1968 succeeding company founder C.R. Smith. Spater got caught in the investigations into the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...

and had to resign from American and was disbarred over illegal $55,000 contribution to the

Committee for the Re-Election of the President The Committee for the Re-election of the President (or the Committee to Re-elect the President, CRP, but often mocked by the acronym CREEP) was, officially, a fundraising organization of United States President Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election ...

—although Spater was never charged or prosecuted. Spater's problems were traced to a meeting with Herbert Kalmbach at the

21 Club The 21 Club, often simply 21, was a traditional American cuisine restaurant and former prohibition-era speakeasy, located at 21 West 52nd Street in New York City. Prior to its closure in 2020, the club had been active for 90 years, and it had ...

in which he was told that anybody contributing $100,000 to CREP would be treated as a "special class." While deciding what to do Spater subsequently said that Smith sent him four checks for $5,000 made out to "cash" with a note saying he might need the extra cash. He then gave the $20,000 to CREP in $100 bills (which was legal since it involved personal accounts). Still short of the $100,000 quota, he then authorized a $55,000 off the books transaction involving a safe at American Airlines headquarters in New York. When a lawsuit by

Common Cause Common Cause is a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., with chapters in 35 states. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican, who was the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of President Lyndon ...

revealed the contribution, he was sacked by the American board and Smith returned as interim CEO.

Writing and death

Spater lost his law license and his position with American Airlines because of his role in the illegal campaign contributions. He subsequently moved to England, where he wrote biographies about

and

. Reviewing the Cobbett biography in the New York Times,

William Safire William Lewis Safire (; Safir; December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009Safire, William (1986). ''Take My Word for It: More on Language.'' Times Books. . p. 185.) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He ...

wrote that "Mr. Spater's much-needed new biography of the first media giant is thorough, solid, usefully illustrated and satisfyingly annotated, a scholarly labor of love that adds significantly to the literature about a historic figure too long overlooked by Americans." He died in

White River Junction, Vermont White River Junction is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Hartford in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,528 at the 2020 census, up from 2,286 in 2010, making it the largest co ...

. * A marriage of true minds : an intimate portrait of Leonard and Virginia Woolf * William Cobbett: Poor Man's Friend

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spater, George A. 1909 births 1984 deaths Lawyers from Detroit American Airlines people University of Michigan Law School alumni Lawyers disbarred in the Watergate scandal The Michigan Daily alumni