Gates White McGarrah II (July 20, 1863 – November 5, 1940)[1] was a prominent American banker who served as the first president of the Bank for International Settlements.
Early life
McGarrah was born on July 20, 1863, in Monroe, Orange County, New York. He was the son of Theodore McGarrah (1835–1907), a country storekeeper, and Mary Abbott (née Pearsall) McGarrah (1834–1917).[2] Among his siblings was younger brother Eugene McGarrah, and younger sister, Ella McGarrah.[3] His paternal grandparents were Gates White McGarrah—the son of New York Assemblyman John McGarrah—and Mary Ann (née VanDuzer) McGarrah.[4] His maternal grandfather was Rowland Pearsall.[5]
He attended grade and high schools in Orange County.[1]
Career
At the age of 18, McGarrah moved to nearby Goshen, New York, where he was employed by the Goshen National Bank beginning in 1881. In 1883, he began his first job in New York was as a check clerk in the Produce Exchange Bank. In 1892, he was made assistant cashier of the Bank.[1] Later in his career he was known as one of the "Country Boys as City Bankers."[6]
In 1898, he became cashier of the Leather Manufacturers National Bank, before becoming its president in 1902. The Bank merged with the Mechanic's National Bank in 1904 and McGarrah was chosen to be president of the merged bank. While he ran Mechanic, it acquired the Fourth National Bank, the National Copper Bank, and the Produce Exchange Bank before it merged with Chase National Bank in 1926. After the 1926 merger, he became chairman of the executive committee of the Chase Bank.[1]
In 1903, McGarrah, along with the American Bankers Association, was one of the founders of the American Institute of Banking which provided professional education via examinations and certificates. During the Panic of 1907, he was a member of the New York Clearing House Association, later serving as its president. In 1918, as head of the Mechanics and Metals Bank, he was aligned with William P. G. Harding, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, in his fear of "unsettlement as result of general adoption of higher rates on deposits."[7] On August 30, 1924, he was appointed as the American director of the general council of the Reichsbank,[8][9] the central bank of Germany from 1876 until 1945.[a] McGarrah was quoted as saying:
"There is no wizardry in finance. The only foundation for success is patience, hard work and good friends."[1]
On October 6, 1886, McGarrah was married to Elizabeth Wallace (1863–1951) in Goshen. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Wallace and Mary (née Strong) Wallace.[16] Together, they lived in New York City and Woods Hole, Massachusetts (where they had a summer home), and were the parents of:[1]
Marion Lavinia McGarrah (1889-1975),[17] who married Herman Henry Helms, an Alcoa executive,[18] and the son of "Herr and Frau Dietrich Helms of Sudwalder bei Bassum, Germany."[19]
Helen McGarrah (1904–1984), who married Jabez Curry Watson Jr. (1901–1944).[20] After his death, she married Murray Paton Fleming, a former wing commander in the Royal Canadian Air Force, in 1946.[21]
McGarrah died at the Doctors Hospital in Manhattan on November 5, 1940.[1] After a funeral at the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, he was buried at Slate Hill Cemetery in Goshen. In his 1940 obituary in Time magazine, they called him "Silent Gates" and "Tycoon McGarrah" (from a 1930 story).[25] His widow, who lived at 400 Park Avenue after his death,[21] died at their home in Goshen in October 1951.[26]
^The idea for the Bank for International Settlements originated in the United States, and the "individuals involved were international bankers who, despite past differences, 'worked together to establish a world financial order that would incorporate the federal principle of the American central banking system.' Specifically among them were people such as 'Owen D. Young, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas W. Lamont, S. Parker Gilbert, Gates W. McGarrah, and Jackson Reynolds, who, in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, sought to extend the principle of central bank cooperation to the international sphere.'"[13]
^McGarrah, Gates W; Helms, Richard (1950). The Gates W. McGarrah collection of presidential autographs: belonging to Richard Helms. Photostated by the Library of Congress. OCLC80019037.
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