Langbourne Meade Williams Jr. (February 5, 1903 – September 8, 1994) was an American businessman.Langbourne Meade Williams, Jr (1903-1994)
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Williams was one of eight children born to Langbourne Meade Williams (September 12, 1872 – April 2, 1932) and Susanne Catherine Nolting (August 29, 1876 – January 13, 1951) of

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. A descendant of Edmund Randolph, Bartholomew Dandridge and grandson of John Williams of the John L. Williams & Sons banking firm, in September 1930 he married Elizabeth Goodrich Stillman (d. 1956), sister of Chauncey Devereux Stillman, daughter of Charles Chauncey Stillman and granddaughter of James Stillman of the National City Bank, and a niece of Percy A. Rockefeller and Mrs. William G. Rockefeller. He married Frances Pinckney Breckinridge in 1956. Williams graduated from the Episcopal High School in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

in 1921. He received a bachelor's degree at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...

in 1924, and gained a

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

master's degree in business administration in 1926. He worked for the New York investment banking firm of Lee, Higginson & Company for a year before joining the family firm of John L. Williams & Sons. One of the investments of the family firm was with the Freeport-Texas Company for which he and some associates decided to launch a

corporate raid In business, a corporate raid is the process of buying a large stake in a corporation and then using shareholder voting rights to require the company to undertake novel measures designed to increase the share value, generally in opposition to the ...

with a proxy fight in 1928. The previous management at one point filed a $1 million libel suit against Mr. Williams and his associates for accusations that the managers had put their interests ahead of their shareholders. In 1930, the Williams group prevailed by less than 4,000 shares. At age 27 he return to New York to become vice president, treasurer and a director of the Freeport-Texas company. He became president of Freeport-Texas with

John Hay Whitney John Hay Whitney (August 17, 1904 – February 8, 1982) was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the ''New York Herald Tribune'', and president of the Museum of Modern Art. He was a member of the Whitney family. Early life Whi ...

as chairman three years later. Williams served as chairman from 1958 until 1967. In 1941 Williams became a governor of New York Hospital, serving until 1961, when he was named an honorary governor. In 1948 he assisted with the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...

to rebuild Europe and later became a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...

. He was also a trustee of the George C. Marshall Research Foundation. Williams came into conflict with the US Government after Freeport-Texas was caught in 1959 investigating a government official in a suspected attempt to influence the government stockpiling contract which the company had enjoyed since having their nickel declared a cold war strategic commodity. The chairman of a House Government Operations subcommittee, Jack Brooks, denounced Williams for "disgraceful, ethically reprehensible snooping," for hiring a former FBI investigator to look into the private life of a General Services Administration official supervising a nickel plant in Cuba. Claiming the Administration official was hostile, Williams said "we felt it necessary to find out whether there was some special reason for his attitude." Freeport's nickel-mining operations in Cuba were seized after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Langbourne Meade Jr. 1903 births 1994 deaths University of Virginia alumni Harvard Business School alumni Businesspeople from Richmond, Virginia American financiers 20th-century American businesspeople