{{short description|American business executive and baseball team owner}} {{Infobox person | name = Bill Yawkey | image = William_H._Yawkey.jpeg | image_size = 150 | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1875|8|22}} | birth_place = Bay City, Michigan, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1919|3|5|1875|8|22}} | death_place = Augusta, Georgia, U.S. | occupation = * Business executive in lumber and mining * Owner of the Detroit Tigers ({{mlby|1904}}–{{mlby|1919}}) | awards = | family = Tom Yawkey <small>(nephew)</small> }} '''William Hoover Yawkey''' (August 22, 1875 – March 5, 1919) was an American business executive in the lumber and mining industries.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fold3.com/image/568693429 |title=Draft Registration Care |publisher=Selective Service System |date=September 1918 |via=fold3.com |url-access=subscription |access-date=September 21, 2020}}</ref> He was the sole owner of the Detroit Tigers of the American League from 1903 through 1908, and majority owner from 1908 to 1919.<ref name=SABR/>

==Biography== Yawkey was the son of wealthy Michigan lumber tycoon William Clyman Yawkey.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59700905/passing-of-a-pioneer/ |title=Passing of a Pioneer |newspaper=Detroit Free Press |page=1 |date=November 24, 1903 |access-date=September 21, 2020 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> The elder Yawkey agreed to buy the Tigers from Samuel F. Angus in 1903, but died before the deal closed.<ref name=SABR/> Frank Navin, then the Tigers' bookkeeper and vice president, persuaded the younger Yawkey to complete the deal.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Team-by-Team Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball |last=Purdy |first=Dennis |year=2006 |publisher=Workman |location=New York City |isbn=0-7611-3943-5 }}</ref>

Yawkey took little interest in the Tigers, leaving day-to-day control in Navin's hands.<ref name=SABR/> In 1908, Yawkey sold almost half of the club's stock to Navin, effectively making Navin a full partner.<ref name=SABR>{{Sabrbio|dba7471c|Frank Navin|Marc Okkonen and David Jones|October 17, 2013}}</ref> Yawkey died in Augusta, Georgia, in 1919 from the Spanish flu. He was interred in a family lot in Brattleboro, Vermont.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59813935/body-brought-to-brattleboro/ |title=Body Brought to Brattleboro |newspaper=St. Albans Messenger |location=St. Albans, Vermont |page=3 |date=March 15, 1919 |access-date=September 22, 2020 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref>{{efn|Online photos at Find a Grave suggest that he has been re-interred within a Yawkey mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York).}} Following Yawkey's death, Navin bought additional stock from the Yawkey estate, raising his stake to 50 percent; he would remain the Tigers' principal owner until his own death in 1935.<ref name=SABR/>

Yawkey left his $40&nbsp;million estate to his nephew and adoptive son, Tom Yawkey,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59701946/millions-in-sight-for-a-youth-of-14/ |title=Millions in Sight for a Youth of 14 |newspaper=The Boston Globe |page=9 |date=March 7, 1919 |access-date=September 21, 2020 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> who later bought the Boston Red Sox.

A boathouse that Yawkey had constructed in 1917 in Hazelhurst, Wisconsin, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/44ce816c-af35-48d3-8ee7-32d831cfecd9 |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form |publisher=National Park Service |date=November 20, 2009 |page=8:4 |access-date=September 22, 2020 |via=NPS.gov}}</ref> {{main|William H. Yawkey Boathouse}}

A cousin, Cyrus C. Yawkey, owned a lumber business and was a politician in Wisconsin.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59812579/w-h-yawkey-dead/ |title=W. H. Yawkey Dead |newspaper=Wausau Daily Herald |page=3 |date=March 6, 1919 |access-date=September 22, 2020 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref>

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://www.mlb.com/tigers/history/owners Detroit Tigers owners] *{{find a Grave|190925373}}

{{Detroit Tigers owners}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yawkey, Bill}} Category:1875 births Category:1919 deaths Category:People from Bay City, Michigan Category:American business executives Category:Major League Baseball owners Category:Detroit Tigers owners Category:Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:19th-century American businesspeople