{{Use American English|date=January 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Richard Aldrich McCurdy | image = Sargent - Portrait of Richard Aldrich C. McCurdy, 1890, P-002-81.jpg | caption = portrait by John Singer Sargent, 1890 | birth_name = | birth_date = January 29, 1835 | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1916|3|6|1835|1|29}} | death_place = Morristown, New Jersey, U.S. | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | alma_mater = Harvard Law School | employer = | occupation = Attorney, business executive, banker | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | political_party = | boards = | spouse = Sarah Ellen Little | children = Robert H. Curdy | parents = Robert Henry McCurdy<br/>Gertrude Mercer Lee | relatives = Theodore Frelinghuysen <small>(maternal great-uncle)</small><br/>Charles J. McCurdy <small>(paternal uncle)</small><br/>Charles Coffin Little <small>(father-in-law)</small><br/>Gardiner Greene Hubbard <small>(brother-in-law)</small> }} '''Richard Aldrich McCurdy''' (January 29, 1835, New York City – March 6, 1916, Morristown, New Jersey) was an American attorney, business executive and banker during the Gilded Age. He served as the President of the Mutual Life Insurance Company from 1885 to 1906, when he retired in the wake of a corporate scandal.
==Early life== Richard Aldrich McCurdy was born on January 29, 1835, in New York City.<ref name="prominentfamiliesofnewyork">{{cite book|last1=Weeks|first1=Lyman Horace|title=Prominent Families of New York: Being an Account in Biographical Form of Individuals and Families Distinguished as Representatives of the Social, Professional and Civic Life of New York City|date=1898|publisher=The Historical Company|location=New York, New York|page=386|url=https://archive.org/stream/prominentfamilie00week#page/386/mode/2up |access-date=December 3, 2015}}</ref><ref name="inghammccurdy">{{cite book |last=Ingham |first=John N. |date=1983 |title=Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qzxy3pejsdoC&pg=PA896 |location=Santa Barbara, California |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |page=896 |isbn=9780313213625 }}</ref><ref name="wellknowninsuranceman">{{cite news|title=Well-Known Insurance Man Passes Away |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/85837471/?terms=%22Richard%2BAldrich%2BMcCurdy%22 |newspaper=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |location=Honolulu, Hawaii |date=March 7, 1916|page=9 |via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 27, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref> His father, Robert Henry McCurdy, was a prominent New York City businessman.<ref name="inghammccurdy"/> His mother, Gertrude Mercer Lee, was the niece of Theodore Frelinghuysen, a United States Senator and former vice presidential candidate.<ref name="prominentfamiliesofnewyork"/>
McCurdy was of Scotch Irish descent on his paternal side; as early as 1503, King James VI leased the vast majority of the Isle of Bute to the MacKurerdy family (later McCurdy).<ref name="prominentfamiliesofnewyork"/> His paternal great-grandfather, John McCurdy, emigrated to the United States from Ireland prior to the Declaration of Independence.<ref name="prominentfamiliesofnewyork"/> His paternal uncle, Charles J. McCurdy, served as the United States Chargé to the Austrian Empire from 1850 to 1852.<ref name="griswoldfamilybook">{{cite book|last1=Salisbury|first1=Edward Elbridge|title=The Griswold Family of Connecticut|date=1892|publisher=Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor|location=New Haven, Connecticut|page=333|isbn=9785871501627|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AJ0IAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA333 |access-date = December 3, 2015}}</ref>
McCurdy received a law degree from the Harvard Law School in 1856.<ref name="inghammccurdy"/><ref name="wellknowninsuranceman"/>
==Career== McCurdy was practised law with William Betts Jr., and Lucius Robinson, who served as the 26th Governor of New York from 1877 to 1879.<ref name="inghammccurdy"/><ref name="richardpittsburgh">{{cite news|title=Richard Aldrich McCurdy Dead. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/85766323/?terms=%22Richard%2BAldrich%2BMcCurdy%22 |newspaper=The Gazette Times |location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |date=March 7, 1916|page=5|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 21, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref>
McCurdy became legal counsel to the Mutual Life Insurance Company from 1860 to 1865.<ref name="inghammccurdy"/> He became its vice president in 1865.<ref name="inghammccurdy"/> He served as its President from 1885 to 1906.<ref name="richardpittsburgh"/><ref name="mutuallifesformer">{{cite news|title=Mutual Life's Former President, McCurdy, Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/49577390/?terms=%22Richard%2BAldrich%2BMcCurdy%22 |newspaper=El Paso Herald |location=El Paso, Texas |date=March 7, 1916|page=6|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 27, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref> Under his leadership, the Mutual Life Insurance Company Building was built in Manhattan; according to John N. Ingham, "it was at that time the largest office structure in the world."<ref name="inghammccurdy"/> Moreover, "the assets of Mutual Life grew from $103,627,812 to $476,861,165" from 1883 to 1903.<ref name="inghammccurdy"/> However, McCurdy and other Mutual Life executives were accused of misappropriation of the company assets.<ref name="inghammccurdy"/> By 1905, McCurdy was questioned over the salary his son received from the company.<ref name="mccurdywillbequizzed">{{cite news|title=McCurdy Will Be Quizzed. Big Earnings of His Son Will Be Probed in New York. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/79659385/?terms=%22Richard%2BAldrich%2BMcCurdy%22 |newspaper=The Minneapolis Journal |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota |date=September 19, 1905 |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 27, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref><ref name="mcurdyfamilygot">{{cite news|title=M'Curdy Family Got $4,600,000 From the Mutual Life in Salaries and Commissions. $2,000,000 to Young McCurdy. He Couldn't Tell What Salary His Father Got and Couldn't Answer Other Questions. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20520491 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 7, 1905 |pages=1; 4 |via = Newspapers.com|access-date = December 3, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref> He retired in this midst of the scandal, in 1906.<ref name="oaklandmutuallifedies">{{cite news|title=Former Head of Mutual Life Dies. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/80745474/?terms=%22Richard%2BAldrich%2BMcCurdy%22 |newspaper=The Oakland Tribune |location=Oakland, California |date=March 6, 1916 |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com|access-date = December 3, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref>
When the newly formed Mutual Alliance Trust Company opened for business in New York on the Tuesday after June 29, 1902, there were 13 directors, including Emanuel Lehman, William Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and McCurdy.<ref name=nyt-vander>{{Citation | date = June 29, 1902 | title = Mutual Alliance Trust Co. | work = The New York Times | publication-place = New York | page = 35 | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A03EFDC113DEE32A2575AC2A9609C946397D6CF&legacy=true | access-date = January 23, 2017 }}</ref>
Additionally, McCurdy served as the President of the Bell Telephone Company.<ref name="wellknowninsuranceman"/> He also served as vice president and director of the Western National Bank of the United States in New York.<ref name="westernnationalbank">{{cite news|title=The Western National Bank of the United States in New York at the Northwest Corner of Nassau and Pine Streets |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20476721/?terms=%22Richard%2BA.%2BMcCurdy%22 |newspaper=The Minneapolis Journal |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota |date=February 4, 1903 |page=13 |via = Newspapers.com|access-date = December 3, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref> Moreover, he served on the board of directors of the United States Mortgage & Trust Company.<ref name="usmortgageandtrustco">{{cite news|title=United States Mortgage & Trust Co. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20315625/?terms=%22Richard%2BA.%2BMcCurdy%22 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 13, 1897 |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com|access-date = December 3, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref>
==Personal life== McCurdy married Sarah Ellen Little, daughter of Charles Coffin Little, on 22 October 1856.<ref name="prominentfamiliesofnewyork"/> They had two children, Robert H. McCurdy (who married Mary Suckley), and Gertrude Lee McCurdy (who married Louis A. Thebaud).<ref name = Little>{{Citation | date = 2 May 1910| title = Mrs. R. A. McCurdy Dead| work = The New York Times| publication-place = New York City| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/05/02/104932395.pdf| access-date = 2 December 2015}}</ref> They resided on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, until they moved to a mansion Morris Plains, New Jersey, followed by another mansion in Morristown, New Jersey.<ref name="prominentfamiliesofnewyork"/><ref name="manyregalhomes">{{cite news|title=Many Regal Homes. Beautiful House On Dover Mountain Surrounded By 500 Acres, Owned By Richard A. McCurdy, Is Abandoned Because He Has Other Estates More Beautiful--But With All Their Millions Made in Insurance the Members of the McCurdy Family Court Privacy. Although Their Entertainments Are Conducted on a Princely Scale. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/56928016/?terms=%22Richard%2BAldrich%2BMcCurdy%22 |newspaper=The Boston Daily Globe |location=Boston, Massachusetts |date=November 15, 1905 |page=20 |via = Newspapers.com|access-date =December 3, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref>
McCurdy's sister Gertrude married Gardiner Greene Hubbard, the first president of the Bell Telephone Company and a founder of the National Geographic Society. McCurdy was thus the uncle of their daughter, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, who married Alexander Graham Bell.<ref name = Hubbard>{{Citation | year = 1899| title = Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society | publisher = The American Antiquarian Society | page = 221| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9GFIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA221 | access-date = 2 December 2015}}</ref>
McCurdy was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Union League Club of New York, the Manhattan Club, the Manhattan Club (social club) and the Lawyer's Club.<ref name="prominentfamiliesofnewyork"/> He was also a member of the New England Society of New York and the American Museum of Natural History.<ref name="prominentfamiliesofnewyork"/>
==Death== McCurdy died on March 6, 1916, in Morristown, New Jersey.<ref name="inghammccurdy"/><ref name="richardpittsburgh"/> He was eighty-one years old.<ref name="mutuallifesformer"/> His portrait, painted by John Singer Sargent in 1890, is in the collection of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida.<ref name="morsemuseum">{{cite web |url=http://www.morsemuseum.org/collection-highlights/paintings/richard-mccurdy |title=Portrait of Richard Aldrich C. McCurdy, 1890 |website=Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art |access-date=December 3, 2015 }}</ref> His photograph, taken by Ira W. Martin in 1890, is in the collection of the Frick Collection on the Upper East Side of New York City.<ref>{{cite web|title=Richard Aldrich McCurdy|url=http://images.frick.org/PORTAL/IMAGEINFO.php?server=MTkyLjE2OC4xMC43Mg==&siteurl=&file=/Volumes/Photoarchive/Duplicate_Negatives/21161_21467/21208_POST.tif|website=The Frick Collection|access-date=December 3, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208151635/http://images.frick.org/PORTAL/IMAGEINFO.php?server=MTkyLjE2OC4xMC43Mg%3D%3D&siteurl=&file=%2FVolumes%2FPhotoarchive%2FDuplicate_Negatives%2F21161_21467%2F21208_POST.tif|archive-date=December 8, 2015}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McCurdy, Richard Aldrich}} Category:1835 births Category:1916 deaths Category:People from Manhattan Category:People from Morris Plains, New Jersey Category:Businesspeople from Morristown, New Jersey Category:Lawyers from Morristown, New Jersey Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Businesspeople from New York (state) Category:American businesspeople in the insurance industry Category:American corporate directors Category:American bankers Category:Mutual Alliance Trust Company people Category:19th-century American businesspeople