Willard Dickerman Straight (January 31, 1880 – December 1, 1918) was an American investment banker, publisher, reporter, diplomat and by marriage, a member of the
Whitney family
The Whitney family is a prominent American family descended from non-Norman English immigrant John Whitney (1592–1673), who left London in 1635 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. The historic family mansion in Watertown, known as The Elm ...
. He was a promoter of Chinese arts and investments, and a major supporter of liberal causes.
Early life
Straight was born on January 31, 1880, in Oswego, New York, the son of two Yankee missionaries to China and Japan, Henry H. Straight (1846-1886) and née Emma Dickerman (1850–1890). Emma was described as an artist who "loved poetry, pictures — beauty in all its forms — but above all else, people." His parents were faculty members at Oswego Normal School. Straight was orphaned at age ten, by the death of his father in 1886 and his mother in 1890. Willard and his sister were taken in by Dr. Elvire Ranier, one of the earliest woman physicians in the country. He attended Bordentown Military Institute in New Jersey, and in 1897 he enrolled at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
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 ...
, and graduated in 1901 with a degree in architecture. At Cornell, he joined Delta Tau Delta, edited and contributed to several publications, and helped to organize Dragon Day, an annual architecture students' event. He was also elected to the Sphinx Head Society, membership in which was reserved for the most respected men of the senior class.
Career
After graduation from Cornell, Straight was hired by the Imperial
Chinese Maritime Customs Service
The Chinese Maritime Customs Service was a Chinese governmental tax collection agency and information service from its founding in 1854 until it split in 1949 into services operating in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and in the People's Republ ...
, an agency of the Chinese government. He served as secretary to Sir Robert Hart, the Service's head, in
Nanjing
Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400.
Situated in the Yang ...
. While in the Far East, he worked as a
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency ...
correspondent during the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Consul-General at Mukden, Manchuria. While there, he and Ms. Mary Harriman were reportedly romantically involved, but their marriage was prevented by E. H. Harriman, her wealthy father. He then went on to work for J. P. Morgan & Co.
Straight married heiress Dorothy Payne Whitney in 1911.
In 1914, Willard and Dorothy, together with Herbert Croly, began publication of ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...
'', a weekly political magazine that quickly became the voice of American liberalism. In 1917, they helped found '' Asia Magazine'', a prominent academic journal on China.
In 1915, Straight left J.P. Morgan and went to work as a vice-president for American International Corporation. In that same year, Straight became involved with the
Preparedness Movement
The Preparedness Movement was a campaign led by former Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Leonard Wood, and former President Theodore Roosevelt to strengthen the United States Armed Forces, U.S. military af ...
and attended the July 1915
Citizens' Military Training Camp
Citizens' Military Training Camps (CMTC) were United States government authorized military training programs held annually each summer during the years 1921 to 1940. CMTC camps differed from National Guard and Organized Reserve training in that t ...
in
Plattsburgh, New York
Plattsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, New York, United States, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 19,841 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. The population of the sur ...
. When the United States entered World War I two years later, Straight joined the United States Army. He served stateside and later in France with the
Adjutant General's Corps
The Adjutant General's Corps is a corps in the British Army responsible for many of its general administrative services, named for the Adjutant-General to the Forces (now the Commander Home Command). As of 2002, the AGC had a staff of 7,000 peop ...
major
Major most commonly refers to:
* Major (rank), a military rank
* Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits
* People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames
* Major and minor in musi ...
.
According to Eric Rauchway, Straight favored an American version of imperialism that was a liberal effort to take political control in Asia away from Britain, Russia, Japan, and other colonial powers and to put it in the hands of those more enlightened. Believing deeply in liberal doctrines about human nature, Straight believed American imperialism was the one best hope for the oppressed peoples of the world.
Personal life
Straight was romantically involved with Ethel Roosevelt, daughter of U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
, according to the society pages of the times, but they broke up. He served as a trustee of Cornell University and a member of the Century Association and
Knickerbocker Club
The Knickerbocker Club (known informally as The Knick) is a gentlemen's club in New York City that was founded in 1871. It is considered to be the most exclusive club in the United States and one of the most Aristocracy (class), aristocratic gent ...
.
In 1911, after five years of courtship, Straight married Dorothy Payne Whitney (1887–1968), a member of the prominent
Whitney family
The Whitney family is a prominent American family descended from non-Norman English immigrant John Whitney (1592–1673), who left London in 1635 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. The historic family mansion in Watertown, known as The Elm ...
Secretary of the Navy
The Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the United States Department of Defense. On March 25, 2025, John Phelan was confirm ...
during the first
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
administration, and her mother was Flora Payne, the daughter of Senator Henry B. Payne of Ohio. The Straights moved first to
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
Spanish influenza
The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...
Suresnes
Suresnes () is a commune in the western inner suburbs of Paris, France. Located in Hauts-de-Seine, from the centre of Paris, it had a population of 49,482 as of 2020.
Suresnes borders the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, ...
, outside of Paris.
Legacy
Following the death of Straight's good friend Henry Schoellkopf in 1912, Straight donated $100,000 () to construct the Schoellkopf Memorial Hall in his honor. After his death, his wife made a substantial donation to Cornell to build the school's first student union building, Willard Straight Hall, which was named in his honor.Cornell Big Red.com Schoellkopf facts/history accessed 10-09-2007
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based 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 la ...
.
* Croly, Herbert. (1924). ''Willard Straight''. New York: The Macmillan Company online * Graves, Louis. ''Willard Straight in the Orient: With Illustrations from His Sketch-books'' (Asia Publishing Company, 1922 online"> online
* Rauchway, Eric. "Willard Straight and the Paradox of Liberal Imperialism." ''Pacific Historical Review'' 66.3 (1997): 363–387 online * Rauchway, Eric. "A Gentlemen's Club in a Woman's Sphere: How Dorothy Whitney Straight Created the New Republic." ''Journal of Women's History'' 11.2 (1999): 60–85.
* Roberts, Priscilla. "Willard D. Straight and the diplomacy of international finance during the First World War." ''Business History'' 40.3 (1998): 16–47.
* Scheiber, Harry N. "World War I as Entrepreneurial Opportunity: Willard Straight and the American International Corporation." ''Political Science Quarterly'' 84.3 (1969): 486–511 online * Vevier, Charles. ''The United States and China, 1906-1913;: A study of finance and diplomacy'' (1968)