The German press in general, and the famous Frankfurter Zeitung in particular, today hailed James Speyer, head of Speyer & Co., internationally known banking firm of New York, and a noted philanthropist and civic leader, on his seventieth birthday.
The Frankfurter Zeitung devotes a special editorial to enumerating the numerous contributions of Mr. Speyer to the city of Frankfurt, the birthplace of his father and of the banking house he now heads Mr. Speyer has been one of the outstanding supporters of Frankfurt’s cultural institutions, especially of its art museums and has maintained Goethe’s birthplace. For his services to Frankfurt he was made an honorary citizen of the famous city some years ago.
The eldest son of Gustav Speyer, who was one of the founders of Speyer & Co., which began operations in New York City in 1837, James Speyer is one of the outstanding citizens of his native city, New York. As a young man he entered the family’s banking house at Frankfurt, in 1881, and later went to Paris and London to receive a thorough education before returning to New York to become a partner of the New York firm, which is one of the oldest and most prominent in America.
Always interested in education and civic betterment,. Mr. Speyer served as a member of the New York city board of education in 1897 and as a member of the Committee of Seventy in 1894. He has been a member of the advisory board of the Port Authority of New York and president of the Provident Loan Society of which he was one of the founders. For more than a quarter of a century he has served as a director of Mt. Sinai Hospital. Since 1911 he has been chairman of the bankers and brokers committee of the United Hospital Fund, of which he is a director. He is also one of the vice-presidents of the Charity Organization Society, president of the University Settlement Society and treasurer of the American Museum of Safety.
Three years ago, Mr. Speyer, as chairman of the finance committee, headed a campaign which raised $2,000,000 for the erection of a home to house the Museum of the City of New York. Mr. Speyer and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., were the largest contributors to this fund, each donationg $45,000. In 1928 he was decorated with the Hungarian Order of Merit as one who had aided in the economic and cultural welfare of Hungary.
Mr. Speyer is also a trustee of Teachers’ College, to which he donated in 1902 the Speyer School.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
