Abram Fitkin
Encyclopedia
Abram Edward Fitkin was an American investment banker, public utilities operator, and philanthropist
, who founded and ran dozens of companies, including A.E. Fitkin & Co.; the National Public Service Corporation; the United States Engineering Corporation; and the General Engineering and Management Corporation, which by 1926 managed 178 utility companies in 18 US states and over 1,000 local communities. As a philantthropist Fitkin donated in excess of $3,000,000 to finance the construction of the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Manzini, Swaziland; the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Institution in Scobeyville, New Jersey
; the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Pavilion for Children at the New Haven Hospital in Yale
; and the Jersey Shore University Medical Center (formerly Raleigh Fitkin and Paul Morgan Memorial Hospital) at Neptune Township, New Jersey
.
; died May 7, 1914) and Thomas Furlong Fitkin (born June 10, 1833 in Weston Turville
, England
; died March 2, 1914), a harness
-manufacturer, who migrated to the USA in 1850, settling in Brooklyn. Fitkin's parents were married on December 31, 1861.
Fitkin had thirteen brothers and sisters: Thomas Ellsworth Fitkin (1862–1868); Louisa Fitkin (born 1863; died June 1879 of diphtheria
); Mary E. Fitkin Raynor (born October 1865; died 1952);
Nellie Fitkin Christy (born September 20, 1866; died 1936); Walter Raleigh Fitkin (born October 1868; died June 1935); Thomas George Fitkin (born and died in 1869); William Fitkin (born and died 1870); Robert Laurence Fitkin (born May 26, 1873; died February 20, 1938); Maude Fitkin (born and died in 1875); Sarah "Sadie" Fitkin (1876–1882); Francis "Nance" Fitkin (born March 1880; died in 1880); and Fuller Fitkin (born and died in 1881).
In June 1880 the Fitkin family lived on Second Street, Brooklyn. Fitkin was a member of the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church
at 95 Richmond Street, Brooklyn.
On October 15, 1895 Fitkin met Susan W. "Susie" Norris (born March 31, 1870 in Ely
, Quebec, Canada; died October 18, 1951 in Alameda, California
), an ordained Canadian Quaker pastor
, at a camp meeting
in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Clintondale, New York
, where she was entirely sanctified. In mid-June 1896 the Clintondale Pentecostal Church was organized after another revival campaign, with Hiram F. Reynolds, a Methodist minister, deciding to join at that time.
was teamed with Susie Norris. On February 26, 1896, Fitkin, transferred his church membership from the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn to the Marlborough Monthly meeting of the Society of Friends in Ulster County. During their six months of itinerant ministry in New York state, Fitkin loaned Susan books on holiness, and many became Christians through their ministry. According to Basil Miller: "This attraction grew into love, and at length love had its way, and they were married by William Thomas Willis (born October 1832), a Quaker minister, former pastor of the Clintondale Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends at Clintondale, New York
(1885-1889), and then resident Quaker minister, at his home in Clintondale
on May 14, 1896".
After their wedding, the Fitkins continued to hold revival meeting
s "throughout the eastern states in campaigns when hundreds were converted and many led into the experience of full salvation". In October 1896 the Fitkins rented a former blacksmith
shop in Hopewell Junction, New York
, where they conducted their services, with the result that "scores were converted", and on November 1, 1896, sixty of the converts were organized into a church, with Fitkin and Susan agreeing to be the pastors. At Fitkin's recommendation, the church affiliated with the newly-established Association of Pentecostal Churches of America (APCA), a holiness denomination led at that time by William Howard Hoople
. Soon after the Fitkins started another church in Cornwall, New York
, which they also pastored. In April 1897 Fitkin was dropped from membership by the Marlborough Monthly Meeting because he has become a member of another denomination. In 1898 Fitkin was ordained as a minister in the APCA at Brooklyn.
By 1900 Fitkin and Susan were co-pastors of the APCA church in South Manchester, Connecticut
, where they lived in a rented house on Main Street. On April 12, 1900, Susan Fitkin was elected president of the APCA's Women's Foreign Missionary Auxiliary at its second annual meeting, held in Saratoga, New York
. During the last four months of 1900, Fitkin and his wife devoted their efforts to traveling evangelism.
As a consequence of the depressed economic circumstances caused by the Panic of 1893
, Fitkin struggled financially while serving as a pastor and evangelist, with little financial support possible from the church. Basil Miller records: "those years at the turn of the century were marked with struggle. There were times when the food on the parsonage table had literally been prayed in by Abram and Susan. ... Week by week a soup-bone graced the parsonage larder, the meat of which served the first day or so, the bone at length, mixed by a skillful hand with vegetables, becoming soup to end the week.
On Thursday, May 14, 1903 Fitkin was the preacher at an all day holiness meeting at the Emanuel Pentecostal Church at 190 1/2 Main Street, Fitchburg, Massachusetts
, pastored by John Norberry.
By 1904 the Fitkins moved to Everett, Massachusetts
, where Susan became the pastor of the APCA church. Abram and Susan Fitkin had four children: A. Raleigh (born September 3, 1904 in Everett, Massachusetts
; died September 7, 1914); Mary-Louise
(born June 12, 1907 in Swampscott, Massachusetts
; died August 17, 1987 in Klamath Falls, Oregon
); Willis Carradine (born October 10, 1908 in Hollis, New York; died Meredith, New Hampshire
); and Ralph MacFarland (born March 7, 1912; died July 16, 1962 in Dade County, Florida).
One of Fitkin's last ministry activities was as one of the preachers at the dedication of new church and parsonage for the Emmanuel Pentecostal Church at Peabody, Massachusetts
on June 3, 1906.
By the end of 1907 Fitkin and Susan, and their two children, moved to Brooklyn because of Fitkin's increased business activities. In 1907 the Fitkins became members of the John Wesley Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene located at the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Sumpter Street, Brooklyn, then pastored by William Howard Hoople
. Their third child, Willis Carradine, named in honor of holiness evangelist Beverly Carradine
, was born on October 10, 1908 in Hollis, Queens
By April 1910 the Fitkins lived in their own home on Wallis Avenue, Queens, New York. While living here, their fourth child, Ralph MacFarland was born March 7, 1912.
After a fishing trip with his father in August 1914, Raleigh Fitkin was thrown from their car after its axle broke. Miller records: "Though badly frightened, father and son seemed to be uninjured. The next day when Raleigh said that he had a severe abdominal pain, the family at first thought it a mere recurrence of appendicitis
attacks, which previously had passed off with no after effects." Despite an operation in a home in Allenhurst, New Jersey
and the efforts of six physicians, on September 14, 1914, Raleigh died. Raleigh, who was "the light of the father's eye", had testified to becoming a Christian at age 6, had indicated that he wanted to be a missionary
to Africa. Raleigh's funeral was held in Allenhurst, New Jersey
.
By January 1920 Fitkin and his family resided at 271 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn; by December 1926, Fitkin and his family lived at 8 Remsen Street, Brooklyn.
By June 1927, Fitkin and his wife lived at a large estate, called "Milestones", that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean
at 16 and 18 Corlies Avenue (at the corner of Ocean Avenue), Allenhurst, New Jersey
. After a trip to California, Fitkin relocated the original colonial house to the rear of the property, and had a 20-room, 3-story bungalow
constructed in its place for the family residence. At noon on June 14, 1927 Fitkin's only daughter, Mary-Louise, married Esley Foster Salsbury (1907–1993) at "Milestones", in a ceremony conducted by her cousin, Rev. Chauncey David Norris. On October 21, 1927, Willis C. Fitkin married Helen Shubert at the St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church in Ocean Grove, New Jersey
.
In July 1928 Fitkin took possession of Memory III, which was described as "one of the outstanding yachts of her day", and was designed by Philadelphia naval architect Thomas D. Bowes and built by Defoe Boat and Motor Works of Bay City, Michigan
specifically for Fitkin in 1927-28. Memory III was a 306-ton steel yacht, 142 feet in length, with a beam
of 23 feet and a draught
of 9 feet 9 inches, and capable of a top speed of 12 knots. In August 1928, Fitkin's other yacht, Adios II, valued at $100,000, was attacked by a former steward who been fired by Fitkin.
In October 1928, Fitkin was threatened with a loaded rifle by a US Coast Guard officer while on his way up the Shrewsbury River
in a motor launch, as it was suspected he may have been involved in smuggling alcohol in violation of Prohibition
laws. Angered by what he considered the officer's rude manner, Fitkin, "a lifelong Republican", vowed to vote for Democrat Al Smith
in the 1928 US Presidential elections
.
On February 13, 1932 Ralph M. Fitkin and Lorene Hastings eloped and married at Elkton, Maryland
.
and in 1908 Fitkin formed a partnership with WC Harty, under the name of A.E Fitkin & Co, which operated as an investment bank and security brokerage, specializing in public utility
securities. Walter Raleigh Fitkin (1868–1935), Fitkin's oldest living brother, was employed as a cashier at A.E. Fitkin & Co. in 1909.
In December 1912 A.E. Fitkin & Co. published a stock and bond sheet listing 600 unlisted securities. Additionally, Fitkin created the United States Engineering Corp., an engineering and management subsidiary.
Eventually Fitkin accumulated $75,000 from commissions, which he used as the "seed money" for his future success. From 1912 Fitkin, later described as "a utility czar", and as "a confident, testy builder and vendor of public utility systems", focused on the acquisition, management, and sale of public utilities. The Los Angeles Times later described Fitkin's strategy: "A.E. Fitkin, who makes a business of buying strategically located public utility properties, building them up with new capital and expert management, and selling the revamped set-up to one of its larger competitors."
, in 1913 Fitkin bought control of The San Angelo Water, Light & Power Co. at San Angelo, Texas
. Before World War I, A.E. Fitkin & Co. drew on capital from New York, Chicago, and Saint Louis to acquire and consolidate a number of East Texas utility companies. In 1916 A.E. Fitkin & Co. purchased the H. M. Spalding Electric Light Plant in Concordia, Kansas
for $550,000 from Lemuel K. Green (died 1930).
In 1918 A.E. Fitkin & Co. purchased a site on San Jacinto Bay
and established an oil refinery for the manufacture of lubricants. In May 1919 A.E. Fitkin & Co. sold most of their stock in the Mexican-Pantjo Oil Co. In an effort to sell the balance of their holdings, W. C. Harty extolled the virtues of Mexican oil: "It is true that Mexican crude is of low grade, but for fuel purposes it is unequalled".
In 1919 the Century Oil Company was incorporated by the General Engineering and Management Corporation, one of the subsidiaries of A.E. Fitkin Co. In October 30, 1924 Century Oil Company and six of its subsidiaries was put into receivership at the request of Fitkin.
By August 1919 A.E. Fitkin & Co. had its headquarters at 141 Broadway, Manhattan, and branch offices in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. On March 18, 1920 A.E. Fitkin & Co.'s partners were Fitkin, W.C. Harty, A,M. Hall II, L.L. Benedict, Jr., and M.J. O'Shaughnessy. However, by August 24, 1920 O'Shaughnessy declared bankruptcy. On September 1, 1921 Benedict and Hall both retired from A.E. Fitkin & Co., leaving Fitkin and Harty as the sole partners.
; died January 12, 1961 in St. Petersburg, Florida
), and renamed it the Pinellas County Power Co., which later became the Florida Power Corporation.
On April 22, 1922 A.E. Fitkin & Co. purchased The Tidewater Power Company of Wilmington, N.C., which controlled the electric light, gas, and street railway companies of Wilmington, North Carolina
, from Hugh MacRae for $5,000,000. Fitkin became president and Harty became vice president.
On October 30, 1922, Fitkin took over the Clearwater Lighting Company in Clearwater, Florida
through the Tide Water Power Company, and merged its assets with those of the St. Petersburg Lighting Company on November 15, 1922 to create the original Florida Power Corporation. Fitkin was president of FPC until he appointed Bird Latham on October 25, 1925. In February 1923 Fitkin was able to announce a minimum 12% reduction in power rates for St. Petersburg customers.
In 1923 A.E. Fitkin & Co. had established the National Public Service Corporation (incorporated in Virginia in 1923), with Fitkin as president, to be a holding company
for their utilities in eight US states, including its Jersey Central Power and Light Company.
In February 1924 A.E. Fitkin & Co. negotiated the purchase of the Miami Municipal street railway from Carl G. Fisher, after having already purchased the electric light and power plant at Miami Beach and the Miami Beach Electric Railway for $1,500,000.
On March 16, 1924 A.E. Fitkin & Co. announced that they had acquired the Tri-County Electric Co. of Pompton Lakes, and the Consolidated Gas Company of New Jersey, which they would merge with their Jersey Central Power and Light Corporation
.
By 1925 Fitkin had formed the Fitkin Realty and Improvement Company of Delaware, with one of its first projects the sale for $80,000 of a property at 5th Street and 1st Avenue South in St. Petersburg, Florida to the Pinellas County Power Co. for the construction of the Florida Power Building, the headquarters of the Florida Power Corporation.
In March 1925 the National Public Service Corporation acquired an additional seven utility companies in three states. By December 1925 Fitkin's utility companies served more than 700 communities in fifteen US states.
In January 1926 Fitkin Utilities acquired the Newport News Hamilton Railway, Gas and Electric Company of Virginia.
By the end of February 1926, A.E. Fitkin's companies were operating in 18 states, and had increased its capital from $30,000,000 to $171,000,000 in the previous four years. At that time, Bird Latham retired from his role in Fitkin's companies, proclaiming Fitkin, "one of the greatest men in America today, a big man who has really put sentiment into business".
By March 1, 1926 Fitkin Utilities had acquired The Southside Virginia Power Co., and merged with its previous acquisitions in Virginia to form the Virginia Public Service Corporation, a subsidiary of National Public Service Corporation.
In April 1926 Fitkin gave 10,000 shares of General Engineering and Management Corporation, which at that time managed the 178 companies in the Fitkin Utility group, to the company's 35 executives and department heads, in recognition of their efforts, saying: "those who devote their energies to upbuilding a concern are entitled to participate in benefits which their help creates". Later in April 1926 two of A.E. Fitkin & Co.'s subsidiaries, Fitkin Utilities, Inc. and the General Engineering and Management Corporation purchased for $3,000,000 a fifteen year-old sixteen-story building at 84 William Street, New York, where they planned to relocate to after May, 1927.
On June 1, 1926 North Carolina governor Angus Wilton McLean
opened the one mile long concrete Wrightsville Beach causeway to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
, financed and constructed by A.E. Fitkin & Co. for $126,000, through a subsidiary, Wilmington-Wrightsville Beach Causeway Company., which charged users 10 cents to cross. The Tide Water Power Company sold lots to develop Shore Acres.
Fitkin was a booster
of Florida's economic opportunities, and was a dominant force during and but especially after the Florida land boom of the 1920s
, purchasing undeveloped tracts of land, building and enlarging power plants due to anticipated and actual population inceases, and then connecting the new communities to his various utilities, including the Georgia Power & Light Co. (later Georgia-Florida Power Co.), and selling the land with substantial profits.
In June 1926, A.E. Fitkin & Co. merged 24 public utility companies held by Commonwealth Light and Power and by the Interstate Electric Corporation into a new Inland Power & Light Corporation. In October 1927 Fitkin sold Inland Power & Light Co. to Samuel Insull
and his interests
, for $30,000,000. By October 1926 Fitkin's utility companies served more than 1,000 communities in the USA.
In November 1926 Fitkin merged four of his utilities companies in Florida into a new Florida Power Corporation, which had been organized and incorporated by the National Public Service Corporation in February 1925 to take over the physical properties of the old Florida Power Corporation (incorporated in 1922). On 1 March 1927 the organization of the new Florida Power Corporation, to be under the control of the National Public Service Corporation, was completed with the merger of the old Florida Power Corporation (1922), the Pinellas County Power Co., and the Central Florida Power & Light Co., valued at $20,000,000, and making it the largest electric power organization in Florida.
In late 1926 Fitkin group purchased from Lemuel Green the West Missouri Power Company, which was to be merged with the Missouri Public Service Company (MPS). By February 1927 Fitkin's companies provided utilities to 1,146 communities in 16 US states.
In 1927 Fitkin sold his interests in the "Shore Acres" real estate development on Harbor Island, South Carolina to Oliver T. Wallace and Richard L. Player.
Fitkin was optimistic about Florida's economic recovery after the collapse of the Florida Boom in 1925, and invested heavily in Florida, indicating in March 1927: "We have invested many millions in Florida and the investment has been profitable. We have abundant faith in Florida's future and we are planning to extend our investment and our service to Florida by the expenditure of many more millions of dollars in permanent construction". In July 1926 Fitkin & Co. indicated it would spend $12,000,000 to construct underground conduit in St. Petersburg, Florida
, and power lines from there to other cities on Florida's west coast, and 88 communities on the east coast.
On March 1, 1927 Fitkin sold its interest in the National Public Service Corporation to Day & Zimmermann
for $250,000,000. On March 25, 1927 A. E. Fitkin & Co. sold control Western United Corporation to Day & Zimmerman. On October 27, 1927 A.E. Fitkin & Co. sold its interests in Commonwealth Light & Power Co. to Insull Son & Co.
,
and in late 1927 Insull also acquired the Florida Power Corporation from the A.E. Fitkin & Co.
for $255,000 from Walter L. Ross, but the Admissions Committee rejected Fitkin's admission at that time. On October 26, 1927 Fitkin left New York to establish branches in Europe for his stockbroking business.
In June 1928 Fitkin's personal fortune was estimated at $30,000,000. In January 1928 Fitkin formed A.E. Fitkin Co., Inc., with offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. and later opened branches in San Francisco and Seattle. Also in 1928 Fitkin formed A.E. Fitkin & Sons, Inc.
In the summer of 1929 Fitkin formed the United American Utilities, Inc. as an investment trust,
which later created the Pacific Freight Lines Corporation, Ltd as its subsidiary.
In early October 1929, just weeks before the Wall Street Crash, A.E. Fitkin & Co sold control of Pacific Public Service Co.
to Standard Oil of California for $26,801,327, which through subsidiaries operated the largest bottled spring and distilled water business in the world, supplied electric light, power and natural gas to 80 California communities in two areas, including the industrial region in Contra Costa County, and the city of Santa Cruz
; owned 21 plants for the production of butane gas, including one at El Centro
, then largest in the U.S.; and owned ice and cold storage plants, a 12-mile refrigeration pipeline that ran through the business district of Los Angeles, serving office buildings, markets and theatres, to Standard Oil Company of California for $26,801,327. By late 1929 A.E. Fitkin Limited had opened branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but had closed its branch in Boston.
On January 2, 1930 Fitkin announced the reorganization of A.E. Fitkin & Co., which included the formation of Fitkin & Co., Ltd., an investment and securities corporation, that would succeed A.E. Fitkin & Co. David A. Pepp of Los Angeles was appointed president of A. E Fitkin & Co., Ltd.
In 1930 Fitkin became board chairman of American Gas & Power Co.
In 1930 Fitkin gained control of Atlantic Public Utilities, Inc., which controlled the water supply
of 200 communities on the Atlantic seaboard
, but which had been placed in receivership
after a drought. In June 1931 Fitkin sold the utility assets of Atlantic Public Utilities, Inc., to Samuel Insull
, giving him a foothold in every Atlantic State except Rhode Island, and an additional 10 million customers. Fitkin retained the water and ice properties and the Cleveland Southwestern railroad system.
In January 1932 Fitkin re-entered the market and acquired control of the American Gas and Power Company, which was in receivership. After Fitkin's death, control of American Gas and Power was acquired by F.W. Seymour through his purchase of its holding company
, Community Gas & Power Co., in September 1934.
In June 1932 Fitkin created A.E. Fitkin & Sons, a new securities brokerage, which succeeded A.E. Fitkin & Co., which admitted his two sons, W.C. Fitkin and Ralph F. Fitkin, as partners.
While his wife dedicated her energies to promoting the missionary program of the Church of the Nazarene
(in partnership with Hiram F. Reynolds) in her capacity as the unpaid founding president of the Nazarene Women's Missionary Society for almost 33 years from September 30, 1915, "her husband poured into the cause of philanthropy and missions millions in memory of their beloved son Raleigh. That thread of interest wove in and out of A. E. Fitkin's career until he died. The dream of perpetuating Raleigh's memory was not one that came early and then vanished. But the father did good deed after good deed until his end". According to Basil Miller: "Throughout the years of Mrs. Fitkin's missionary travels as president of the W.F.M.S., he financed liberally all her expenses as well as those of her companions en route. In addition there were large gifts directly to missionary causes, these amounts going far over the ten thousand mark in some years".
, Swaziland
.
and head of its foreign missionary program, that they would "provide the money for the erection of a memorial hospital in Africa." The Fitkins donated funds to build the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, a small 18-bed facility built on the Nazarene mission compound at Piggs Peak
, Swaziland
from April 1919, and opened in 1920. By 1919 the Nazarene mission station at Piggs Peak, formerly known as the Camp Station, was renamed the Fitkin Memorial Station.
In 1925 the Swaziland government granted 35 acres of land fifty miles further south at Bremersdorp to the Church of the Nazarene for a hospital closer to the population centre of the country. After the opening of the new Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in 1927, the old hospital building was used to house a portion of the Piggs Peak Nazarene Primary School.
in Bremersdorp, Swaziland. By June 1925 the first stage was dedicated, and on July 16, 1927, RFMH hospital was dedicated by Susan Norris Fitkin.
.
Later in 1927 Fitkin donated $1,000,000 to build and endow the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Institution, a hospital and home for crippled children on the state highway, between Eatontown
and Freehold
in Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey. The plans included the purchase of 200 acres to establish a self-supporting farm to fund the Institute.
for the care and treatment of children in memory of his oldest son, Raleigh, with $500,000 for the study of children's diseases, and another $500,000 for the construction of a 125-bed hospital at the New Haven Hospital at 789 Howard Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut
, to be designed by Henry Colden Pelton (born October 18, 1868 in New York; died on August 28, 1935, in New York City), who had previously designed Christodora House
(1928), the Babies and Children's Hospital of New York
at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center
(1928), and the Riverside Church
(1930).
Escalating construction costs resulted in Fitkin donating an additional $100,000 in June 1929 to build the now larger six-story 136-bed Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Pavilion for Children. Fitkin's donation allowed the expansion and consolidation of pediatric inpatient facilities in a single building, close to the departmental offices and clinic facilities. Fitkin dedicated the hospital on February 8, 1930, however at that time only two of five floors of the Fitkin buildings were assigned to pediatrics
. According to Howard Pearson, "Fifty inpatient beds were on Fitkin 3 and Fitkin 4, and included two air-conditioned rooms for premature infants. The outpatient clinic had 20 examining rooms on the third floor of the Clinic Building. There were two pediatric infectious disease wards on the second floor of the Isolation Building. This set-up remained essentially the same for the next 25 years". The Fitkin wards remained the inpatient pediatric service at the hospital until the 1980s.
Also in 1928 $1,000,000 was given to create the Ralph Fitkin Ward Unit in honor of Fitkin's youngest son for the "study and treatment of diseases of childhood".
at the age of 32, by May 1930 Fitkin contributed $500,000 to the Spring Lake Hospital Society to build the Fitkin-Morgan Memorial Hospital at Corlies Avenue in Neptune Township, New Jersey
. On November 19, 1930 Fitkin laid one of the cornerstone
s for the hospital, which was opened on Thursday, November 19, 1931. The hospital was founded as "a voluntary non-profit, general hospital "with the aim of providing "medical and surgical care and nursing service to the sick and injured who need the services of the hospital, regardless of their ability to pay".
In 1966 the hospital's corporate name was changed to Jersey Shore University Medical Center - Fitkin Hospital.
, in Asbury Park, New Jersey
. By 1928 Fitkin was a member of the Altair Lodge No. 601 of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons
in Brooklyn, and served on its Board of Trustees Masonic Hall and Asylum Fund. In May 1932 Fitkin was one of the four primary benefactors who purchased the historic Johannes de Wint home
at Tappan, New York
, where George Washington
had made his temporary headquarters on four separate occasions during the American Revolutionary War
, and then gave it to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York
to convert into a museum.
and interstitial neuritis
in the morning of Saturday, March 18, 1933 in his apartment at the Savoy-Plaza Hotel
Fitkin left an estate estimated at $250,000,000. at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan, New York. After a funeral on Monday, March 20, 1933 at his Allenhurst, New Jersey
home, he was buried in Brooklyn near his son, Raleigh.
According to Fitkin's friend, Rev. Elmer G. Anderson: "While he had left the ministry, and lived during these years without God, still there was a tenderness in his heart concerning the work of the Kingdom. He was a man that literally lived under conviction. I have seen him close his door, refuse all appointments that might have meant thousands of dollars, and say to me, 'Elmer, read the Bible and pray with me.' Nor did he dispose of his early holiness and ministerial books." Fitkin's wife believed that on his deathbed, when he was only fifty-four, he had returned to God. According to Miller: "She and the ministers who were his personal friends, E. G. Anderson and W. B. Riley, prayed for hours with him, until God gave Mrs. Fitkin the assurance that he had come back to the Father's home."
by January 1948, was one of the oldest African-American congregations in the Church of the Nazarene
.
Upon the occasion of the retirement in June 1948 of Susan Norris Fitkin after almost 33 years as its unpaid general president, the Nazarene Women's Foreign Missionary Society decided to honor her by raising $50,000 to establish the Fitkin Memorial Training School on the new Nazarene mission field in Ji'an, Jiangxi, China. Eventually almost $75,000 was raised by members of the Church of the Nazarene
for this project. The Fitkin Memorial Bible School was opened on October 12, 1948 with 26 students.
However, after the departure of Nazarene missionaries from China in May 1949, the balance of funds given for the Fitkin Memorial School in Daming were reallocated to educational projects in other countries, including $9,000 sent to British Honduras
, where the Fitkin Memorial Nazarene Bible College of British Honduras was opened in Benque Viejo del Carmen
on June 8, 1950, but closed in 1965; Japan, where $25,000 was allocated to construct the building that housed the new Nippon Nazarene Seminary in Tokyo, which was christened the Susan N. Fitkin Memorial Building, and dedicated on April 13, 1952; and $9,000 to the Philippines, where it was used to fund the construction of the Fitkin Memorial Bible Training School (now Luzon Nazarene Bible College) in La Trinidad, Benguet
in July 1952, with an initial enrolment of 35 students, which was named in honor of Susan Norris Fitkin, who had died in 1951; and Lebanon, where land was purchased in the suburb of Sioufi, in the Achrafieh
district of east Beirut
, and a five-story building constructed in 1953 that housed a church and the Fitkin Memorial Nazarene Bible School, which operated from October 1954 until 1969.
; died September 7, 1914);
(born June 12, 1907 in Swampscott, Massachusetts
), was a member of the Church of the Nazarene
from childhood, attended Adelphi Academy
at Lafayette Avenue, St. James Place and Clifton Place, Brooklyn, New York, and studied at Stanford University
for one year until June 1928.
), who attended the California College of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, California, and on December 1950 married artist Lloyd David Cogley (born March 5, 1917 in San Francisco; died February 2, 1992 in Klamath Falls), and they subsequently had five sons.
from 1931 to 1935, who was excluded from the US western defense area on September 4, 1942 until November 17, 1943 as an enemy alien
, During their period of separation, Mary-Louise and her daughter lived in Illinois. The Deisslers divorced in 1946, and Mary-Louise and Suzanne moved to Carmel, California.
whom she had met while campaigning for the NAACP, in Seattle, Washington
, as the laws of California did not allow inter-racial marriages. After living in Vancouver, British Columbia for a year, the Hoopers separated, and were divorced in 1949. By June 1950 Mary Louise had become a Quaker. Hooper returned to Stanford University
in 1953 to complete her degree, majoring in German, graduating with honors in June 1955. Mary-Louise Hooper, who had been "long active in volunteer work to better inter-racial relations", was also "an active supporter of African struggles against colonialism
and apartheid". After a three-month tour of South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, with a group of Quakers in 1955, Hooper migrated to South Africa later that year, buying a home in Durban, South Africa. Hooper supported the African National Congress
, described at one time as "the only white person to ever work inside the African National Congress", campaigned for the abolition of apartheid, and worked as a volunteer aide and secretary to ANC president Chief Albert Luthuli. Hooper was active in supporting those tried during the Treason Trial
. Hooper, who had moved to Hillbrow, a suburb of Johannesburg, was arrested on March 10, 1957 and imprisoned for five days in what she described as "degrading and humiliating" conditions in the Fort Prison
in Johannesburg
, and was ordered to be deported from South Africa after being accused of assisting South African "negroes". Hooper was freed by the Rand Supreme Court on a writ of habeas corpus
, and later awarded damages
. On May 14, 1957 Eben Dönges, the Interior Minister, ordered her deportation as he believed her presence in South Africa was not in the public interest. After leaving South Africa voluntarily at the end of May 1957, she was excluded by the South African government, but continued to be active in her opposition to apartheid, including giving interviews on radio, and television; raising funds for the South African Defense Fund; serving as one of the three ANC delegates to the first All-African Peoples' Conference
in December 1958 in Accra
, Ghana
; and one of only two American observers at the Third All-African Peoples' Conference in Cairo
in March 1961; organizing boycotts of South African goods and preventing the unloading of South African ships in January 1963; spoke to churches, and civic organizations; and writing articles. Hooper worked for the American Committee on Africa
(ACOA), helped initiate and organize the 1965 Declaration of American Artists Against Apartheid, which sought to prevent cultural contacts with the apartheid regime; testified before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
in May 1967, and invited Martin Luther King, Jr to speak at the 1965 South Africa Benefit, where he called for economic sanctions against South Africa. Hooper also supported the Front de Libération Nationale
(FLN), in its efforts to gain independence for Algeria
from France, writing Refugee Algerian Students in 1960.
Mary-Louise died in Klamath Falls, Oregon
on August 14, 1987.
); attended Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn; In July 1924 Willis, then aged 15, was the driver of a car that was involved in a collision in New Jersey with a truck loaded with eggs, that damaged both vehicles severely but left both drivers uninjured. On October 22, 1927 at the St Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church at Ocean Grove, New Jersey
, W.C. Fitkin married Helen E. Shubert (born August 12, 1906 in Minnesota; died May 29, 1993 in Mahopac, New York
) They had four children: Abraham Edward Fitkin (born 13 June 13, 1929 in Long Brant, Monmouth County, New Jersey
; died March 17, 1992 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
), Willis C. Fitkin, III (born about 1931), Joyce Fitkin Pietri (born about 1933), and Karen E. Fitkin Draper.
Fitkin was a vice-president, director and stockholder in A.E. Fitkin & Co. and A.E. Fitkin & Sons since 1932; president and chairman of Michigan Gas Utilities Co since April 1953; a member of the board of directors of Tampa Electric Co. until 1979; and was a member of the board of trustees of the Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Neptune, New Jersey
from its opening in November 1931. He resided in Naples, Florida
since 1955.
in Brooklyn until 1930, attended Yale University
in 1931-1932, married Lorene Billie Hastings (born November 6, 1911; died 1987) on February 13, 1932 in Elkton, Maryland
with no family members present; and had three sons: Reed Keawaiki Fitkin (born September 22, 1939), Thomas Hastings Fitkin (born 1943; died 1945), and Scott Norris Fitkin (born August 8, 1945 in Hawaii). Ralph Fitkin was a vice-president, director and stockholder in A.E. Fitkin & Co. and A.E. Fitkin & Sons since 1932; served as a lieutenant in the US Navy during World War II, working in the cable censor's office in Hawaii, before retiring from the US Navy as a lieutenant commander
; and was the owner of KHON
in Honolulu, Hawaii
, (which was part of the Aloha Broadcasting Company, which also included KTOH Lihue Kauai
, KMVI
Wailuku Maui
, and KIPA Hilo), from its founding in 1946 until at least 1952. Fitkin, who resided at Greenwich, Connecticut
, died on July 16, 1962 in Dade County, Florida.
.
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, who founded and ran dozens of companies, including A.E. Fitkin & Co.; the National Public Service Corporation; the United States Engineering Corporation; and the General Engineering and Management Corporation, which by 1926 managed 178 utility companies in 18 US states and over 1,000 local communities. As a philantthropist Fitkin donated in excess of $3,000,000 to finance the construction of the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Manzini, Swaziland; the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Institution in Scobeyville, New Jersey
Monmouth County, New Jersey
Monmouth County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 630,380, up from 615,301 at the 2000 census. Its county seat is Freehold Borough. The most populous municipality is Middletown Township with...
; the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Pavilion for Children at the New Haven Hospital in Yale
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
; and the Jersey Shore University Medical Center (formerly Raleigh Fitkin and Paul Morgan Memorial Hospital) at Neptune Township, New Jersey
Neptune Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 27,690 people, 10,907 households, and 6,805 families residing in the township. The population density was 3,366.8 people per square mile . There were 12,217 housing units at an average density of 1,485.4 per square mile...
.
Personal history
Abram Edward Fitkin was born on September 18, 1878 in Brooklyn, New York, the sixth son and 11th of thirteen children of Mary E. Vought (born September 18, 1843 in Easton, PennsylvaniaEaston, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,800 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Northampton County....
; died May 7, 1914) and Thomas Furlong Fitkin (born June 10, 1833 in Weston Turville
Weston Turville
Weston Turville is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about a mile and a half south east of Aylesbury and the parish is bisected across the top by Akeman Street....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
; died March 2, 1914), a harness
Harness
A harness is a looped restraint or support. It can also be referred to as an "hitcharness", especially by the Jordanian Armed Forces. Specifically, it may refer to one of the following harness types:* Bondage harness* Child harness* Climbing harness...
-manufacturer, who migrated to the USA in 1850, settling in Brooklyn. Fitkin's parents were married on December 31, 1861.
Fitkin had thirteen brothers and sisters: Thomas Ellsworth Fitkin (1862–1868); Louisa Fitkin (born 1863; died June 1879 of diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
); Mary E. Fitkin Raynor (born October 1865; died 1952);
Nellie Fitkin Christy (born September 20, 1866; died 1936); Walter Raleigh Fitkin (born October 1868; died June 1935); Thomas George Fitkin (born and died in 1869); William Fitkin (born and died 1870); Robert Laurence Fitkin (born May 26, 1873; died February 20, 1938); Maude Fitkin (born and died in 1875); Sarah "Sadie" Fitkin (1876–1882); Francis "Nance" Fitkin (born March 1880; died in 1880); and Fuller Fitkin (born and died in 1881).
In June 1880 the Fitkin family lived on Second Street, Brooklyn. Fitkin was a member of the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church
Andrews United Methodist Church
Andrews United Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church at 95 Richmond Street in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, New York, New York. It was built in 1893 and is a one story, asymmetrical orange brick church in the Queen Anne style. It features a massive rose window on the front facade and a three...
at 95 Richmond Street, Brooklyn.
On October 15, 1895 Fitkin met Susan W. "Susie" Norris (born March 31, 1870 in Ely
Shefford, Quebec
Shefford is a township located in the province of Quebec. It is part of the Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality in the administrative area of Montérégie. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 5,941. The township completely encircles the city of Waterloo.-Population:Population...
, Quebec, Canada; died October 18, 1951 in Alameda, California
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
), an ordained Canadian Quaker pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
, at a camp meeting
Camp meeting
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in Britain and once common in some parts of the United States, wherein people would travel from a large area to a particular site to camp out, listen to itinerant preachers, and pray...
in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Clintondale, New York
Clintondale, New York
Clintondale is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 1,424 at the 2000 census.Clintondale is located at the north town line of the Town of Plattekill...
, where she was entirely sanctified. In mid-June 1896 the Clintondale Pentecostal Church was organized after another revival campaign, with Hiram F. Reynolds, a Methodist minister, deciding to join at that time.
Ministry
For the next six months Fitkin, described as a "gifted evangelist",was teamed with Susie Norris. On February 26, 1896, Fitkin, transferred his church membership from the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn to the Marlborough Monthly meeting of the Society of Friends in Ulster County. During their six months of itinerant ministry in New York state, Fitkin loaned Susan books on holiness, and many became Christians through their ministry. According to Basil Miller: "This attraction grew into love, and at length love had its way, and they were married by William Thomas Willis (born October 1832), a Quaker minister, former pastor of the Clintondale Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends at Clintondale, New York
Clintondale, New York
Clintondale is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 1,424 at the 2000 census.Clintondale is located at the north town line of the Town of Plattekill...
(1885-1889), and then resident Quaker minister, at his home in Clintondale
Clintondale, New York
Clintondale is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 1,424 at the 2000 census.Clintondale is located at the north town line of the Town of Plattekill...
on May 14, 1896".
After their wedding, the Fitkins continued to hold revival meeting
Revival meeting
A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held in order to inspire active members of a church body, to raise funds and to gain new converts...
s "throughout the eastern states in campaigns when hundreds were converted and many led into the experience of full salvation". In October 1896 the Fitkins rented a former blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
shop in Hopewell Junction, New York
Hopewell Junction, New York
Hopewell Junction is a hamlet in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,610 at the 2000 census...
, where they conducted their services, with the result that "scores were converted", and on November 1, 1896, sixty of the converts were organized into a church, with Fitkin and Susan agreeing to be the pastors. At Fitkin's recommendation, the church affiliated with the newly-established Association of Pentecostal Churches of America (APCA), a holiness denomination led at that time by William Howard Hoople
William Howard Hoople
William Howard Hoople was a prominent leader of the American Holiness movement; the co-founder of the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, one of the antecedent groups that merged to create the Church of the Nazarene; rescue mission organizer; an ordained minister in the Church of the...
. Soon after the Fitkins started another church in Cornwall, New York
Cornwall, New York
Cornwall is a town in Orange County, New York, USA. It is located about 50 miles north of New York City on the western shore of the Hudson River. The estimated population in 2007 was 12,827....
, which they also pastored. In April 1897 Fitkin was dropped from membership by the Marlborough Monthly Meeting because he has become a member of another denomination. In 1898 Fitkin was ordained as a minister in the APCA at Brooklyn.
By 1900 Fitkin and Susan were co-pastors of the APCA church in South Manchester, Connecticut
Manchester, Connecticut
Manchester is a township and city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 58,241.- History :...
, where they lived in a rented house on Main Street. On April 12, 1900, Susan Fitkin was elected president of the APCA's Women's Foreign Missionary Auxiliary at its second annual meeting, held in Saratoga, New York
Saratoga, New York
Saratoga is a town in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 5,141 at the 2000 census. It is also the commonly used, but not official, name for the neighboring and much more populous city, Saratoga Springs. The major village in the town of Saratoga is Schuylerville which is...
. During the last four months of 1900, Fitkin and his wife devoted their efforts to traveling evangelism.
As a consequence of the depressed economic circumstances caused by the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
, Fitkin struggled financially while serving as a pastor and evangelist, with little financial support possible from the church. Basil Miller records: "those years at the turn of the century were marked with struggle. There were times when the food on the parsonage table had literally been prayed in by Abram and Susan. ... Week by week a soup-bone graced the parsonage larder, the meat of which served the first day or so, the bone at length, mixed by a skillful hand with vegetables, becoming soup to end the week.
On Thursday, May 14, 1903 Fitkin was the preacher at an all day holiness meeting at the Emanuel Pentecostal Church at 190 1/2 Main Street, Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Fitchburg is the third largest city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,318 at the 2010 census. Fitchburg is home to Fitchburg State University as well as 17 public and private elementary and high schools.- History :...
, pastored by John Norberry.
After ministry
During 1903 Fitkin left pastoral ministry and ceased his evangelistic work to devote his attention to making sufficient income to support both his family and his future ministry. Fitkin announced: "It is better to be a good businessman than a poor minister." Fitkin admitted to his friend, Rev. E. G. Anderson, that at first he only aimed to make enough to be independent in God's work. The goal he set was a half million.By 1904 the Fitkins moved to Everett, Massachusetts
Everett, Massachusetts
Everett is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, near Boston. The population was 41,667 at the 2010 census.Everett is the last city in the United States with a bicameral legislature, which is composed of a seven-member Board of Aldermen and an 18-member Common Council...
, where Susan became the pastor of the APCA church. Abram and Susan Fitkin had four children: A. Raleigh (born September 3, 1904 in Everett, Massachusetts
Everett, Massachusetts
Everett is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, near Boston. The population was 41,667 at the 2010 census.Everett is the last city in the United States with a bicameral legislature, which is composed of a seven-member Board of Aldermen and an 18-member Common Council...
; died September 7, 1914); Mary-Louise
Mary-Louise Hooper
Mary-Louise Hooper was a wealthy American heiress and civil rights activist and anti-apartheid activist, whose brief imprisonment in Johannesburg, South Africa and subsequent exclusion from South Africa in 1957 was a cause célèbre both in South Africa and the USA...
(born June 12, 1907 in Swampscott, Massachusetts
Swampscott, Massachusetts
Swampscott is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States located 15 miles up the coast from Boston in an area known as the North Shore. The population is 13,787...
; died August 17, 1987 in Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Originally called Linkville when George Nurse founded the town in 1867, after the Link River on whose falls this city sat, although no falls currently exist; the name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892...
); Willis Carradine (born October 10, 1908 in Hollis, New York; died Meredith, New Hampshire
Meredith, New Hampshire
Meredith is a town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, USA. The population was 6,241 at the 2010 census. Meredith is situated beside Lake Winnipesaukee. It is home to Stonedam Island Natural Area and the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad...
); and Ralph MacFarland (born March 7, 1912; died July 16, 1962 in Dade County, Florida).
One of Fitkin's last ministry activities was as one of the preachers at the dedication of new church and parsonage for the Emmanuel Pentecostal Church at Peabody, Massachusetts
Peabody, Massachusetts
Peabody is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population is about 53,000. Peabody is located in Boston's North Shore suburban area.- History :...
on June 3, 1906.
By the end of 1907 Fitkin and Susan, and their two children, moved to Brooklyn because of Fitkin's increased business activities. In 1907 the Fitkins became members of the John Wesley Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene located at the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Sumpter Street, Brooklyn, then pastored by William Howard Hoople
William Howard Hoople
William Howard Hoople was a prominent leader of the American Holiness movement; the co-founder of the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, one of the antecedent groups that merged to create the Church of the Nazarene; rescue mission organizer; an ordained minister in the Church of the...
. Their third child, Willis Carradine, named in honor of holiness evangelist Beverly Carradine
Beverly Carradine
Beverly Francis Carradine was an American Methodist minister, and a leading evangelist for the holiness movement. He was a productive author, writing primarily on the subject of sanctification.- Life and work :...
, was born on October 10, 1908 in Hollis, Queens
Hollis, Queens
Hollis is a neighborhood within the southeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. A predominantly African American community, the boundaries are considered to be the Far Rockaway Branch of the Long Island Rail Road to the west, Hillside Avenue to the north, Francis Lewis Boulevard to...
By April 1910 the Fitkins lived in their own home on Wallis Avenue, Queens, New York. While living here, their fourth child, Ralph MacFarland was born March 7, 1912.
After a fishing trip with his father in August 1914, Raleigh Fitkin was thrown from their car after its axle broke. Miller records: "Though badly frightened, father and son seemed to be uninjured. The next day when Raleigh said that he had a severe abdominal pain, the family at first thought it a mere recurrence of appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
attacks, which previously had passed off with no after effects." Despite an operation in a home in Allenhurst, New Jersey
Allenhurst, New Jersey
Allenhurst is a Borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 496.Allenhurst was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 26, 1897, from portions of Ocean Township...
and the efforts of six physicians, on September 14, 1914, Raleigh died. Raleigh, who was "the light of the father's eye", had testified to becoming a Christian at age 6, had indicated that he wanted to be a missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
to Africa. Raleigh's funeral was held in Allenhurst, New Jersey
Allenhurst, New Jersey
Allenhurst is a Borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 496.Allenhurst was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 26, 1897, from portions of Ocean Township...
.
By January 1920 Fitkin and his family resided at 271 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn; by December 1926, Fitkin and his family lived at 8 Remsen Street, Brooklyn.
By June 1927, Fitkin and his wife lived at a large estate, called "Milestones", that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
at 16 and 18 Corlies Avenue (at the corner of Ocean Avenue), Allenhurst, New Jersey
Allenhurst, New Jersey
Allenhurst is a Borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 496.Allenhurst was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 26, 1897, from portions of Ocean Township...
. After a trip to California, Fitkin relocated the original colonial house to the rear of the property, and had a 20-room, 3-story bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
constructed in its place for the family residence. At noon on June 14, 1927 Fitkin's only daughter, Mary-Louise, married Esley Foster Salsbury (1907–1993) at "Milestones", in a ceremony conducted by her cousin, Rev. Chauncey David Norris. On October 21, 1927, Willis C. Fitkin married Helen Shubert at the St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church in Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Neptune Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. It had a population of 3,342 at the 2010 census. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean Jersey Shore, between Asbury Park to the north and Bradley Beach to the south...
.
In July 1928 Fitkin took possession of Memory III, which was described as "one of the outstanding yachts of her day", and was designed by Philadelphia naval architect Thomas D. Bowes and built by Defoe Boat and Motor Works of Bay City, Michigan
Bay City, Michigan
Bay City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and is the principal city of the Bay City Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Saginaw-Bay City-Saginaw Township North...
specifically for Fitkin in 1927-28. Memory III was a 306-ton steel yacht, 142 feet in length, with a beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
of 23 feet and a draught
Draft (hull)
The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...
of 9 feet 9 inches, and capable of a top speed of 12 knots. In August 1928, Fitkin's other yacht, Adios II, valued at $100,000, was attacked by a former steward who been fired by Fitkin.
In October 1928, Fitkin was threatened with a loaded rifle by a US Coast Guard officer while on his way up the Shrewsbury River
Shrewsbury River
The Shrewsbury River is a short stream and navigable estuary, approximately 8 mi long, in central New Jersey in the United States....
in a motor launch, as it was suspected he may have been involved in smuggling alcohol in violation of Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
laws. Angered by what he considered the officer's rude manner, Fitkin, "a lifelong Republican", vowed to vote for Democrat Al Smith
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928...
in the 1928 US Presidential elections
United States presidential election, 1928
The United States presidential election of 1928 pitted Republican Herbert Hoover against Democrat Al Smith. The Republicans were identified with the booming economy of the 1920s, whereas Smith, a Roman Catholic, suffered politically from Anti-Catholic prejudice, his anti-prohibitionist stance, and...
.
On February 13, 1932 Ralph M. Fitkin and Lorene Hastings eloped and married at Elkton, Maryland
Elkton, Maryland
The town of Elkton is the county seat of Cecil County, Maryland, United States. The population was 11,893 as of the 2000 census and 14,842 according to current July 2008 census estimates. It is the county seat of Cecil County...
.
Career
In 1900 Fitkin began his business career in Boston as a bookkeeper, before moving to New York to become a manager at Pelser, Welker & Co., a financial firm that dealt mainly in railroad securities. Fitkin formed Fitkin Securities Corp. as a holding company for all of his interests;and in 1908 Fitkin formed a partnership with WC Harty, under the name of A.E Fitkin & Co, which operated as an investment bank and security brokerage, specializing in public utility
Public utility
A public utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service . Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to state-wide government monopolies...
securities. Walter Raleigh Fitkin (1868–1935), Fitkin's oldest living brother, was employed as a cashier at A.E. Fitkin & Co. in 1909.
In December 1912 A.E. Fitkin & Co. published a stock and bond sheet listing 600 unlisted securities. Additionally, Fitkin created the United States Engineering Corp., an engineering and management subsidiary.
Eventually Fitkin accumulated $75,000 from commissions, which he used as the "seed money" for his future success. From 1912 Fitkin, later described as "a utility czar", and as "a confident, testy builder and vendor of public utility systems", focused on the acquisition, management, and sale of public utilities. The Los Angeles Times later described Fitkin's strategy: "A.E. Fitkin, who makes a business of buying strategically located public utility properties, building them up with new capital and expert management, and selling the revamped set-up to one of its larger competitors."
1913-1920
After borrowing $400,000 from a friend at the Guaranty Trust CompanyJ.P. Morgan & Co.
J.P. Morgan & Co. was a commercial and investment banking institution based in the United States founded by J. Pierpont Morgan and commonly known as the House of Morgan or simply Morgan. Today, J.P...
, in 1913 Fitkin bought control of The San Angelo Water, Light & Power Co. at San Angelo, Texas
San Angelo, Texas
San Angelo is a city in the state of Texas. Located in West Central Texas it is the county seat of Tom Green County. As of 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 93,200...
. Before World War I, A.E. Fitkin & Co. drew on capital from New York, Chicago, and Saint Louis to acquire and consolidate a number of East Texas utility companies. In 1916 A.E. Fitkin & Co. purchased the H. M. Spalding Electric Light Plant in Concordia, Kansas
Concordia, Kansas
Concordia is a city in and the county seat of Cloud County, Kansas, United States. Located on the Republican River in the Smoky Hills region of the Great Plains, Concordia was founded in 1871 and is an economic and cultural center in north-central Kansas...
for $550,000 from Lemuel K. Green (died 1930).
In 1918 A.E. Fitkin & Co. purchased a site on San Jacinto Bay
Galveston Bay
Galveston Bay is a large estuary located along the upper coast of Texas in the United States. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and is surrounded by sub-tropic marshes and prairies on the mainland. The water in the Bay is a complex mixture of sea water and fresh water which supports a wide...
and established an oil refinery for the manufacture of lubricants. In May 1919 A.E. Fitkin & Co. sold most of their stock in the Mexican-Pantjo Oil Co. In an effort to sell the balance of their holdings, W. C. Harty extolled the virtues of Mexican oil: "It is true that Mexican crude is of low grade, but for fuel purposes it is unequalled".
In 1919 the Century Oil Company was incorporated by the General Engineering and Management Corporation, one of the subsidiaries of A.E. Fitkin Co. In October 30, 1924 Century Oil Company and six of its subsidiaries was put into receivership at the request of Fitkin.
By August 1919 A.E. Fitkin & Co. had its headquarters at 141 Broadway, Manhattan, and branch offices in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. On March 18, 1920 A.E. Fitkin & Co.'s partners were Fitkin, W.C. Harty, A,M. Hall II, L.L. Benedict, Jr., and M.J. O'Shaughnessy. However, by August 24, 1920 O'Shaughnessy declared bankruptcy. On September 1, 1921 Benedict and Hall both retired from A.E. Fitkin & Co., leaving Fitkin and Harty as the sole partners.
1921-1927
On October 1, 1921 Fitkin bought the St. Petersburg Electric Light and Power Co. from Bird Malcolm Latham (born July 5, 1885 in Mahanoy City, PennsylvaniaMahanoy City, Pennsylvania
Mahanoy City is a borough located north by west of Reading and 13 miles southwest of Hazleton, in northern Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania or the southern Coal Region. The name "Mahanoy" is believed to be a variation of the Native American word 'Maghonioy', or "the salt deposits"...
; died January 12, 1961 in St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
), and renamed it the Pinellas County Power Co., which later became the Florida Power Corporation.
On April 22, 1922 A.E. Fitkin & Co. purchased The Tidewater Power Company of Wilmington, N.C., which controlled the electric light, gas, and street railway companies of Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
, from Hugh MacRae for $5,000,000. Fitkin became president and Harty became vice president.
On October 30, 1922, Fitkin took over the Clearwater Lighting Company in Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
through the Tide Water Power Company, and merged its assets with those of the St. Petersburg Lighting Company on November 15, 1922 to create the original Florida Power Corporation. Fitkin was president of FPC until he appointed Bird Latham on October 25, 1925. In February 1923 Fitkin was able to announce a minimum 12% reduction in power rates for St. Petersburg customers.
In 1923 A.E. Fitkin & Co. had established the National Public Service Corporation (incorporated in Virginia in 1923), with Fitkin as president, to be a holding company
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
for their utilities in eight US states, including its Jersey Central Power and Light Company.
In February 1924 A.E. Fitkin & Co. negotiated the purchase of the Miami Municipal street railway from Carl G. Fisher, after having already purchased the electric light and power plant at Miami Beach and the Miami Beach Electric Railway for $1,500,000.
On March 16, 1924 A.E. Fitkin & Co. announced that they had acquired the Tri-County Electric Co. of Pompton Lakes, and the Consolidated Gas Company of New Jersey, which they would merge with their Jersey Central Power and Light Corporation
FirstEnergy
FirstEnergy Corp. , is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services...
.
By 1925 Fitkin had formed the Fitkin Realty and Improvement Company of Delaware, with one of its first projects the sale for $80,000 of a property at 5th Street and 1st Avenue South in St. Petersburg, Florida to the Pinellas County Power Co. for the construction of the Florida Power Building, the headquarters of the Florida Power Corporation.
In March 1925 the National Public Service Corporation acquired an additional seven utility companies in three states. By December 1925 Fitkin's utility companies served more than 700 communities in fifteen US states.
In January 1926 Fitkin Utilities acquired the Newport News Hamilton Railway, Gas and Electric Company of Virginia.
By the end of February 1926, A.E. Fitkin's companies were operating in 18 states, and had increased its capital from $30,000,000 to $171,000,000 in the previous four years. At that time, Bird Latham retired from his role in Fitkin's companies, proclaiming Fitkin, "one of the greatest men in America today, a big man who has really put sentiment into business".
By March 1, 1926 Fitkin Utilities had acquired The Southside Virginia Power Co., and merged with its previous acquisitions in Virginia to form the Virginia Public Service Corporation, a subsidiary of National Public Service Corporation.
In April 1926 Fitkin gave 10,000 shares of General Engineering and Management Corporation, which at that time managed the 178 companies in the Fitkin Utility group, to the company's 35 executives and department heads, in recognition of their efforts, saying: "those who devote their energies to upbuilding a concern are entitled to participate in benefits which their help creates". Later in April 1926 two of A.E. Fitkin & Co.'s subsidiaries, Fitkin Utilities, Inc. and the General Engineering and Management Corporation purchased for $3,000,000 a fifteen year-old sixteen-story building at 84 William Street, New York, where they planned to relocate to after May, 1927.
On June 1, 1926 North Carolina governor Angus Wilton McLean
Angus Wilton McLean
Angus Wilton McLean was a lawyer and banker who was the 56th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1925 to 1929...
opened the one mile long concrete Wrightsville Beach causeway to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
Wrightsville Beach is a town in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. Wrightsville Beach is just east of Wilmington and is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,593 at the 2000 census...
, financed and constructed by A.E. Fitkin & Co. for $126,000, through a subsidiary, Wilmington-Wrightsville Beach Causeway Company., which charged users 10 cents to cross. The Tide Water Power Company sold lots to develop Shore Acres.
Fitkin was a booster
Booster
Booster may refer to:In science and technology:* Booster , a motor-generator set used for voltage regulation in direct current electrical power circuits...
of Florida's economic opportunities, and was a dominant force during and but especially after the Florida land boom of the 1920s
Florida land boom of the 1920s
The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble, which burst in 1925, leaving behind entire new cities and the remains of failed development projects such as Aladdin City in south Miami-Dade County and Isola di Lolando in north Biscayne Bay...
, purchasing undeveloped tracts of land, building and enlarging power plants due to anticipated and actual population inceases, and then connecting the new communities to his various utilities, including the Georgia Power & Light Co. (later Georgia-Florida Power Co.), and selling the land with substantial profits.
In June 1926, A.E. Fitkin & Co. merged 24 public utility companies held by Commonwealth Light and Power and by the Interstate Electric Corporation into a new Inland Power & Light Corporation. In October 1927 Fitkin sold Inland Power & Light Co. to Samuel Insull
Samuel Insull
Samuel Insull was an Anglo-American innovator and investor based in Chicago who greatly contributed to creating an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States. Insull was notable for purchasing utilities and railroads using holding companies, as well as the abuse of them...
and his interests
Insull Utilities Investment Inc.
Insull Utilities Investment Inc. was a corporation securities firm based in Chicago, Illinois which became insolvent in 1932. It was formed in December 1928 with assets of $23,000,000 to $24,000,000. The firm was...
, for $30,000,000. By October 1926 Fitkin's utility companies served more than 1,000 communities in the USA.
In November 1926 Fitkin merged four of his utilities companies in Florida into a new Florida Power Corporation, which had been organized and incorporated by the National Public Service Corporation in February 1925 to take over the physical properties of the old Florida Power Corporation (incorporated in 1922). On 1 March 1927 the organization of the new Florida Power Corporation, to be under the control of the National Public Service Corporation, was completed with the merger of the old Florida Power Corporation (1922), the Pinellas County Power Co., and the Central Florida Power & Light Co., valued at $20,000,000, and making it the largest electric power organization in Florida.
In late 1926 Fitkin group purchased from Lemuel Green the West Missouri Power Company, which was to be merged with the Missouri Public Service Company (MPS). By February 1927 Fitkin's companies provided utilities to 1,146 communities in 16 US states.
In 1927 Fitkin sold his interests in the "Shore Acres" real estate development on Harbor Island, South Carolina to Oliver T. Wallace and Richard L. Player.
Fitkin was optimistic about Florida's economic recovery after the collapse of the Florida Boom in 1925, and invested heavily in Florida, indicating in March 1927: "We have invested many millions in Florida and the investment has been profitable. We have abundant faith in Florida's future and we are planning to extend our investment and our service to Florida by the expenditure of many more millions of dollars in permanent construction". In July 1926 Fitkin & Co. indicated it would spend $12,000,000 to construct underground conduit in St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
, and power lines from there to other cities on Florida's west coast, and 88 communities on the east coast.
On March 1, 1927 Fitkin sold its interest in the National Public Service Corporation to Day & Zimmermann
Day & Zimmermann
The Day & Zimmermann company was founded in 1901. Its corporate office is at 1500 Spring Garden St. Philadelphia, PA 19130.The company first came to prominence when the Hershey chocolate company contracted it to produce the foil wrapper for their Hershey's Kisses...
for $250,000,000. On March 25, 1927 A. E. Fitkin & Co. sold control Western United Corporation to Day & Zimmerman. On October 27, 1927 A.E. Fitkin & Co. sold its interests in Commonwealth Light & Power Co. to Insull Son & Co.
Samuel Insull
Samuel Insull was an Anglo-American innovator and investor based in Chicago who greatly contributed to creating an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States. Insull was notable for purchasing utilities and railroads using holding companies, as well as the abuse of them...
,
and in late 1927 Insull also acquired the Florida Power Corporation from the A.E. Fitkin & Co.
1927-1933
In October 1927 Fitkin announced his retirement from the public utilities field to engage in Stock Exchange and investment activities. A few days later Fitkin purchased a seat on the New York Stock ExchangeNew York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
for $255,000 from Walter L. Ross, but the Admissions Committee rejected Fitkin's admission at that time. On October 26, 1927 Fitkin left New York to establish branches in Europe for his stockbroking business.
In June 1928 Fitkin's personal fortune was estimated at $30,000,000. In January 1928 Fitkin formed A.E. Fitkin Co., Inc., with offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. and later opened branches in San Francisco and Seattle. Also in 1928 Fitkin formed A.E. Fitkin & Sons, Inc.
In the summer of 1929 Fitkin formed the United American Utilities, Inc. as an investment trust,
which later created the Pacific Freight Lines Corporation, Ltd as its subsidiary.
In early October 1929, just weeks before the Wall Street Crash, A.E. Fitkin & Co sold control of Pacific Public Service Co.
to Standard Oil of California for $26,801,327, which through subsidiaries operated the largest bottled spring and distilled water business in the world, supplied electric light, power and natural gas to 80 California communities in two areas, including the industrial region in Contra Costa County, and the city of Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
; owned 21 plants for the production of butane gas, including one at El Centro
El Centro, California
El Centro is a city in and county seat of Imperial County, the largest city in the Imperial Valley and the east anchor of the Southern California Border Region, and the core urban area and principal city of the El Centro metropolitan area which encompasses all of Imperial County. El Centro is also...
, then largest in the U.S.; and owned ice and cold storage plants, a 12-mile refrigeration pipeline that ran through the business district of Los Angeles, serving office buildings, markets and theatres, to Standard Oil Company of California for $26,801,327. By late 1929 A.E. Fitkin Limited had opened branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but had closed its branch in Boston.
On January 2, 1930 Fitkin announced the reorganization of A.E. Fitkin & Co., which included the formation of Fitkin & Co., Ltd., an investment and securities corporation, that would succeed A.E. Fitkin & Co. David A. Pepp of Los Angeles was appointed president of A. E Fitkin & Co., Ltd.
In 1930 Fitkin became board chairman of American Gas & Power Co.
In 1930 Fitkin gained control of Atlantic Public Utilities, Inc., which controlled the water supply
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
of 200 communities on the Atlantic seaboard
Atlantic Seaboard
The Atlantic seaboard watershed is a watershed of North America along both*the Atlantic Canada coast south of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence Watershed &*the East Coast of the United States north of the watershed of the Okeechobee Waterway....
, but which had been placed in receivership
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
after a drought. In June 1931 Fitkin sold the utility assets of Atlantic Public Utilities, Inc., to Samuel Insull
Samuel Insull
Samuel Insull was an Anglo-American innovator and investor based in Chicago who greatly contributed to creating an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States. Insull was notable for purchasing utilities and railroads using holding companies, as well as the abuse of them...
, giving him a foothold in every Atlantic State except Rhode Island, and an additional 10 million customers. Fitkin retained the water and ice properties and the Cleveland Southwestern railroad system.
In January 1932 Fitkin re-entered the market and acquired control of the American Gas and Power Company, which was in receivership. After Fitkin's death, control of American Gas and Power was acquired by F.W. Seymour through his purchase of its holding company
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
, Community Gas & Power Co., in September 1934.
In June 1932 Fitkin created A.E. Fitkin & Sons, a new securities brokerage, which succeeded A.E. Fitkin & Co., which admitted his two sons, W.C. Fitkin and Ralph F. Fitkin, as partners.
Philanthropy
The death of Fitkin's oldest son, Raleigh (born September 3, 1904), "the light of the father's eye", on September 7, 1914, was the primary factor in Fitkin's philanthropic enterprises. According to Basil Miller: "The lad Raleigh was to play an important role in the family's missionary future. ... [T]he boy's interest in missions prompted his father Abram to build at a cost of thousands of dollars the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Africa". Fitkin's ability to make money financed his wife's ministry,into which her husband's generosity in the span of his life poured a fortune. For during the days of her active service, she was to cover the foreign world more extensively than any church sire or leader among the Nazarenes. All of this was made possible by Abram's midasMidasFor the legend of Gordias, a person who was taken by the people and made King, in obedience to the command of the oracle, see Gordias.Midas or King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This was called the Golden touch, or the...
' touch. Traveling more than a half-million missionary miles, she did so without cost to the church she loved so deeply. Likewise she contributed through Mr. Fitkin's successes the expenses of her companion on home and foreign trips, as well as making liberal missionary donations. In the dim backdrop of this was Raleigh, whose missionary zeal and interest so touched his father's heartstrings that he could but be generous with God's work and philanthropic causes.
While his wife dedicated her energies to promoting the missionary program of the Church of the Nazarene
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...
(in partnership with Hiram F. Reynolds) in her capacity as the unpaid founding president of the Nazarene Women's Missionary Society for almost 33 years from September 30, 1915, "her husband poured into the cause of philanthropy and missions millions in memory of their beloved son Raleigh. That thread of interest wove in and out of A. E. Fitkin's career until he died. The dream of perpetuating Raleigh's memory was not one that came early and then vanished. But the father did good deed after good deed until his end". According to Basil Miller: "Throughout the years of Mrs. Fitkin's missionary travels as president of the W.F.M.S., he financed liberally all her expenses as well as those of her companions en route. In addition there were large gifts directly to missionary causes, these amounts going far over the ten thousand mark in some years".
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Church of the Nazarene, Swaziland (1916)
Early in 1916 Susan Fitkin began dreaming of building a missionary chapel in Africa in memory of Raleigh. Abram Fitkin provided the funds to construct the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial church, "the first tangible memorial to that would-be child missionary, Raleigh", at Piggs PeakPiggs Peak
Piggs Peak is a town in north western Swaziland. It was founded around gold prospecting in 1884, but its main industry is now forestry. The Phophonyane Falls lie near the town. Piggs Peak Casino takes its name from the area...
, Swaziland
Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
.
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, Piggs Peak, Swaziland (1919-1925)
In October 1916 the Fitkins advised Hiram F. Reynolds, a general superintendent of the Church of the NazareneChurch of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...
and head of its foreign missionary program, that they would "provide the money for the erection of a memorial hospital in Africa." The Fitkins donated funds to build the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, a small 18-bed facility built on the Nazarene mission compound at Piggs Peak
Piggs Peak
Piggs Peak is a town in north western Swaziland. It was founded around gold prospecting in 1884, but its main industry is now forestry. The Phophonyane Falls lie near the town. Piggs Peak Casino takes its name from the area...
, Swaziland
Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
from April 1919, and opened in 1920. By 1919 the Nazarene mission station at Piggs Peak, formerly known as the Camp Station, was renamed the Fitkin Memorial Station.
In 1925 the Swaziland government granted 35 acres of land fifty miles further south at Bremersdorp to the Church of the Nazarene for a hospital closer to the population centre of the country. After the opening of the new Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in 1927, the old hospital building was used to house a portion of the Piggs Peak Nazarene Primary School.
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, Bremersdorp, Swaziland (1927)
Excluding the $10,000 contributed by members of the Church of the Nazarene from 1926, the Fitkins and Mrs Ada E. Bresee were the principal donors of the substantial amount given to build the replacement 80-bed Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital (RFMH) for the Church of the NazareneChurch of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...
in Bremersdorp, Swaziland. By June 1925 the first stage was dedicated, and on July 16, 1927, RFMH hospital was dedicated by Susan Norris Fitkin.
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Institution, New Jersey (1927)
By July 1927 Fitkin bought a 160 acre farm on the south side of the county road between Colt's Neck and Scobeyville, New Jersey for $26,000, which included an apple and peach orchards, crops, livestock, farm machinery, outbuildings and a century-old fifteen room house, which Fitkin intended to have enlarged and remodeled in order to use as an orphanageOrphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
.
Later in 1927 Fitkin donated $1,000,000 to build and endow the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Institution, a hospital and home for crippled children on the state highway, between Eatontown
Eatontown, New Jersey
Eatontown is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 12,709.What is now Eatontown was originally incorporated as Eatontown Township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 4, 1873, from portions of Ocean Township and...
and Freehold
Freehold, New Jersey
Freehold, New Jersey may refer to:* Freehold Borough, New Jersey, the county seat of Monmouth County* Freehold Township, New Jersey, the much larger township that surrounds the borough...
in Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey. The plans included the purchase of 200 acres to establish a self-supporting farm to fund the Institute.
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Pavilion for Children, Connecticut (1928-1930)
On June 15, 1928 Fitkin donated $1,000,000 to Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
for the care and treatment of children in memory of his oldest son, Raleigh, with $500,000 for the study of children's diseases, and another $500,000 for the construction of a 125-bed hospital at the New Haven Hospital at 789 Howard Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, to be designed by Henry Colden Pelton (born October 18, 1868 in New York; died on August 28, 1935, in New York City), who had previously designed Christodora House
Christodora House
Christodora House is a historic building located at 143 Avenue B in New York, NY. It was designed by architect Henry C. Pelton, in the American Perpendicular Style and constructed in 1928 as a settlement house for low-income and immigrant residents, providing food, shelter, education and health...
(1928), the Babies and Children's Hospital of New York
Sloane Hospital for Women
The Sloane Hospital for Women is the obstetrics and gynecology service within New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City....
at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center
Columbia University Medical Center
Columbia University Medical Center is an academic medical center that includes Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, College of Dental Medicine, School of Nursing and Mailman School of Public Health...
(1928), and the Riverside Church
Riverside Church
The Riverside Church in the City of New York is an interdenominational church in New York City, famous for its elaborate Neo-Gothic architecture—which includes the world's largest tuned carillon bell...
(1930).
Escalating construction costs resulted in Fitkin donating an additional $100,000 in June 1929 to build the now larger six-story 136-bed Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Pavilion for Children. Fitkin's donation allowed the expansion and consolidation of pediatric inpatient facilities in a single building, close to the departmental offices and clinic facilities. Fitkin dedicated the hospital on February 8, 1930, however at that time only two of five floors of the Fitkin buildings were assigned to pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
. According to Howard Pearson, "Fifty inpatient beds were on Fitkin 3 and Fitkin 4, and included two air-conditioned rooms for premature infants. The outpatient clinic had 20 examining rooms on the third floor of the Clinic Building. There were two pediatric infectious disease wards on the second floor of the Isolation Building. This set-up remained essentially the same for the next 25 years". The Fitkin wards remained the inpatient pediatric service at the hospital until the 1980s.
Also in 1928 $1,000,000 was given to create the Ralph Fitkin Ward Unit in honor of Fitkin's youngest son for the "study and treatment of diseases of childhood".
Raleigh Fitkin-Paul Morgan Memorial Hospital, New Jersey (1930)
In order to honor his deceased son, and also A.E. Fitkin & Co. Vice-President Paul L. Morgan (born about 1896; died March 1929), who died of pneumoniaPneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
at the age of 32, by May 1930 Fitkin contributed $500,000 to the Spring Lake Hospital Society to build the Fitkin-Morgan Memorial Hospital at Corlies Avenue in Neptune Township, New Jersey
Neptune Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 27,690 people, 10,907 households, and 6,805 families residing in the township. The population density was 3,366.8 people per square mile . There were 12,217 housing units at an average density of 1,485.4 per square mile...
. On November 19, 1930 Fitkin laid one of the cornerstone
Cornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
s for the hospital, which was opened on Thursday, November 19, 1931. The hospital was founded as "a voluntary non-profit, general hospital "with the aim of providing "medical and surgical care and nursing service to the sick and injured who need the services of the hospital, regardless of their ability to pay".
In 1966 the hospital's corporate name was changed to Jersey Shore University Medical Center - Fitkin Hospital.
Church of the Nazarene
Fitkin also paid off the $50,000 mortgage of the John Wesley Church of the Nazarene, where he held his church membership since 1907. In 1927 Fitkin and his wife gave $14,000 for Nazarene missions.DeWint Home (1932)
Fitkin was affiliated with several fraternal organizations, including the Corson Commandery, No. 15, of the Knights TemplarKnights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
, in Asbury Park, New Jersey
Asbury Park, New Jersey
Asbury Park is a city in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, located on the Jersey Shore and part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 16,116. The city is known for its rich musical history, including its association with...
. By 1928 Fitkin was a member of the Altair Lodge No. 601 of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons
Grand Lodge
A Grand Lodge, or "Grand Orient", is the usual governing body of "Craft", or "Blue Lodge", Freemasonry in a particular jurisdiction. The first Masonic Grand Lodge was established in England in 1717 as the Premier Grand Lodge of England....
in Brooklyn, and served on its Board of Trustees Masonic Hall and Asylum Fund. In May 1932 Fitkin was one of the four primary benefactors who purchased the historic Johannes de Wint home
DeWint House
The DeWint House, or De Wint House, at Tappan, New York is one of the oldest surviving structures in Rockland County, New York and is an outstanding example of Hudson Valley Colonial Dutch architecture. It was built using indigenous sandstone in 1700 by Daniel DeClark, a Hollander, who emigrated to...
at Tappan, New York
Tappan, New York
Tappan is a hamlet in the Town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Old Tappan, New Jersey; east of Nauraushaun and Pearl River; south of Blauvelt and west of Palisades and Sparkill...
, where George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
had made his temporary headquarters on four separate occasions during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, and then gave it to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
to convert into a museum.
Death
After a lengthy illness, Fitkin died of chronic myocarditisMyocarditis
Myocarditis is inflammation of heart muscle . It resembles a heart attack but coronary arteries are not blocked.Myocarditis is most often due to infection by common viruses, such as parvovirus B19, less commonly non-viral pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi or Trypanosoma cruzi, or as a...
and interstitial neuritis
Peripheral neuropathy
Peripheral neuropathy is the term for damage to nerves of the peripheral nervous system, which may be caused either by diseases of or trauma to the nerve or the side-effects of systemic illness....
in the morning of Saturday, March 18, 1933 in his apartment at the Savoy-Plaza Hotel
General Motors Building (New York)
The General Motors Building is a 50-story, 705-foot office tower in Manhattan, New York City, facing Fifth Avenue at 59th Street . The building is one of the few structures in Manhattan that occupies a full city block...
Fitkin left an estate estimated at $250,000,000. at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan, New York. After a funeral on Monday, March 20, 1933 at his Allenhurst, New Jersey
Allenhurst, New Jersey
Allenhurst is a Borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 496.Allenhurst was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 26, 1897, from portions of Ocean Township...
home, he was buried in Brooklyn near his son, Raleigh.
According to Fitkin's friend, Rev. Elmer G. Anderson: "While he had left the ministry, and lived during these years without God, still there was a tenderness in his heart concerning the work of the Kingdom. He was a man that literally lived under conviction. I have seen him close his door, refuse all appointments that might have meant thousands of dollars, and say to me, 'Elmer, read the Bible and pray with me.' Nor did he dispose of his early holiness and ministerial books." Fitkin's wife believed that on his deathbed, when he was only fifty-four, he had returned to God. According to Miller: "She and the ministers who were his personal friends, E. G. Anderson and W. B. Riley, prayed for hours with him, until God gave Mrs. Fitkin the assurance that he had come back to the Father's home."
Legacy
The Fitkin Memorial Church of the Nazarene (recently Fitkin's Memorial Church of the Nazarene), established at 1110 38th Avenue, Meridian, MississippiMeridian, Mississippi
Meridian is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Mississippi. It is the sixth largest city in the state and the principal city of the Meridian, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area...
by January 1948, was one of the oldest African-American congregations in the Church of the Nazarene
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...
.
Upon the occasion of the retirement in June 1948 of Susan Norris Fitkin after almost 33 years as its unpaid general president, the Nazarene Women's Foreign Missionary Society decided to honor her by raising $50,000 to establish the Fitkin Memorial Training School on the new Nazarene mission field in Ji'an, Jiangxi, China. Eventually almost $75,000 was raised by members of the Church of the Nazarene
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...
for this project. The Fitkin Memorial Bible School was opened on October 12, 1948 with 26 students.
However, after the departure of Nazarene missionaries from China in May 1949, the balance of funds given for the Fitkin Memorial School in Daming were reallocated to educational projects in other countries, including $9,000 sent to British Honduras
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
, where the Fitkin Memorial Nazarene Bible College of British Honduras was opened in Benque Viejo del Carmen
Benque Viejo del Carmen
Benque Viejo del Carmen is a town in the Cayo District in the country of Belize.-History:The town was established in the 19th century, mostly by immigrants from Guatemala. During the first years of the 21st century, the town experienced a rapid boom in population...
on June 8, 1950, but closed in 1965; Japan, where $25,000 was allocated to construct the building that housed the new Nippon Nazarene Seminary in Tokyo, which was christened the Susan N. Fitkin Memorial Building, and dedicated on April 13, 1952; and $9,000 to the Philippines, where it was used to fund the construction of the Fitkin Memorial Bible Training School (now Luzon Nazarene Bible College) in La Trinidad, Benguet
La Trinidad, Benguet
La Trinidad is a 1st class municipality in the province of Benguet, Philippines. It is the capital municipality of Benguet. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 97,810 people in 13,658 households....
in July 1952, with an initial enrolment of 35 students, which was named in honor of Susan Norris Fitkin, who had died in 1951; and Lebanon, where land was purchased in the suburb of Sioufi, in the Achrafieh
Achrafieh
Achrafieh, , is one of the oldest Christian districts of East Beirut, Lebanon.-Overview:It is located on a hill in the eastern part of Beirut alongside the shore. Achrafieh is both a residential and commercial district characterized by narrow winding streets and prestigious large apartment and...
district of east Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, and a five-story building constructed in 1953 that housed a church and the Fitkin Memorial Nazarene Bible School, which operated from October 1954 until 1969.
Abram Raleigh Fitkin
Abram Raleigh Fitkin (born September 3, 1904 in Everett, MassachusettsEverett, Massachusetts
Everett is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, near Boston. The population was 41,667 at the 2010 census.Everett is the last city in the United States with a bicameral legislature, which is composed of a seven-member Board of Aldermen and an 18-member Common Council...
; died September 7, 1914);
Mary-Louise Hooper
Mary-Louise Fitkin HooperMary-Louise Hooper
Mary-Louise Hooper was a wealthy American heiress and civil rights activist and anti-apartheid activist, whose brief imprisonment in Johannesburg, South Africa and subsequent exclusion from South Africa in 1957 was a cause célèbre both in South Africa and the USA...
(born June 12, 1907 in Swampscott, Massachusetts
Swampscott, Massachusetts
Swampscott is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States located 15 miles up the coast from Boston in an area known as the North Shore. The population is 13,787...
), was a member of the Church of the Nazarene
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...
from childhood, attended Adelphi Academy
Adelphi University
Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...
at Lafayette Avenue, St. James Place and Clifton Place, Brooklyn, New York, and studied at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
for one year until June 1928.
Esley Foster Salsbury (1928-1938)
Mary-Louise married Esley Foster Salsbury (born August 28, 1907 in Canada; died June 13, 1993 in Los Angeles, California) on June 14, 1928 at "Milestones", the Fitkin home in Allenhurst, New Jersey; In April 1930 the Salsburys lived with Susan Norris Fitkin in Oakland, California. They had one child, Suzanne Mary Salsbury (born December 7, 1933 in Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
), who attended the California College of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, California, and on December 1950 married artist Lloyd David Cogley (born March 5, 1917 in San Francisco; died February 2, 1992 in Klamath Falls), and they subsequently had five sons.
Karl Josef Deissler (1938-1946)
By August 1938 Mary-Louise had married Dr. Karl Josef Deissler (born June 29, 1906 in Heidelberg, Germany; died August 15, 1998 in Bern, Switzerland), a German physician, who had fled Germany for the USA in 1931 because of his liberal ideas and fears of Nazi persecution, and had been a fellow of the Mayo ClinicMayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
from 1931 to 1935, who was excluded from the US western defense area on September 4, 1942 until November 17, 1943 as an enemy alien
Enemy alien
In law, an enemy alien is a citizen of a country which is in a state of conflict with the land in which he or she is located. Usually, but not always, the countries are in a state of declared war.-United Kingdom:...
, During their period of separation, Mary-Louise and her daughter lived in Illinois. The Deisslers divorced in 1946, and Mary-Louise and Suzanne moved to Carmel, California.
Clifford Hooper (1947-1949)
In late 1947 Mary-Louise married Clifford Hooper, an African AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
whom she had met while campaigning for the NAACP, in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, as the laws of California did not allow inter-racial marriages. After living in Vancouver, British Columbia for a year, the Hoopers separated, and were divorced in 1949. By June 1950 Mary Louise had become a Quaker. Hooper returned to Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in 1953 to complete her degree, majoring in German, graduating with honors in June 1955. Mary-Louise Hooper, who had been "long active in volunteer work to better inter-racial relations", was also "an active supporter of African struggles against colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
and apartheid". After a three-month tour of South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, with a group of Quakers in 1955, Hooper migrated to South Africa later that year, buying a home in Durban, South Africa. Hooper supported the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
, described at one time as "the only white person to ever work inside the African National Congress", campaigned for the abolition of apartheid, and worked as a volunteer aide and secretary to ANC president Chief Albert Luthuli. Hooper was active in supporting those tried during the Treason Trial
Treason Trial
The Treason Trial was a trial in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956....
. Hooper, who had moved to Hillbrow, a suburb of Johannesburg, was arrested on March 10, 1957 and imprisoned for five days in what she described as "degrading and humiliating" conditions in the Fort Prison
Constitution Hill, Johannesburg
The Constitution Hill precinct, located at the western end of the suburb Hillbrow in Johannesburg, is the seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. The first court session in the new building at this location was held in February 2004.-History:...
in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, and was ordered to be deported from South Africa after being accused of assisting South African "negroes". Hooper was freed by the Rand Supreme Court on a writ of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
, and later awarded damages
Damages
In law, damages is an award, typically of money, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury; grammatically, it is a singular noun, not plural.- Compensatory damages :...
. On May 14, 1957 Eben Dönges, the Interior Minister, ordered her deportation as he believed her presence in South Africa was not in the public interest. After leaving South Africa voluntarily at the end of May 1957, she was excluded by the South African government, but continued to be active in her opposition to apartheid, including giving interviews on radio, and television; raising funds for the South African Defense Fund; serving as one of the three ANC delegates to the first All-African Peoples' Conference
All-African Peoples' Conference
The All-African Peoples' Conference was a conferenceof political parties and other groupsin the late 1950s and early 1960s in Africa.It was attended bydelegates from independence movementsin areas still under European colonial rule,...
in December 1958 in Accra
Accra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
; and one of only two American observers at the Third All-African Peoples' Conference in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
in March 1961; organizing boycotts of South African goods and preventing the unloading of South African ships in January 1963; spoke to churches, and civic organizations; and writing articles. Hooper worked for the American Committee on Africa
Africa Action
Africa Action is a national human rights nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC, working to change U.S.-Africa relations to promote political, economic and social justice in nations of Africa. They provide accessible information and analysis, and mobilize popular support for campaigns to...
(ACOA), helped initiate and organize the 1965 Declaration of American Artists Against Apartheid, which sought to prevent cultural contacts with the apartheid regime; testified before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
in May 1967, and invited Martin Luther King, Jr to speak at the 1965 South Africa Benefit, where he called for economic sanctions against South Africa. Hooper also supported the Front de Libération Nationale
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...
(FLN), in its efforts to gain independence for Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
from France, writing Refugee Algerian Students in 1960.
Mary-Louise died in Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Originally called Linkville when George Nurse founded the town in 1867, after the Link River on whose falls this city sat, although no falls currently exist; the name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892...
on August 14, 1987.
Willis Carradine Fitkin
Willis Carradine "Bud" Fitkin (born October 10, 1908 in Hollis, New York; died November 8, 1980 in Meredith, New HampshireMeredith, New Hampshire
Meredith is a town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, USA. The population was 6,241 at the 2010 census. Meredith is situated beside Lake Winnipesaukee. It is home to Stonedam Island Natural Area and the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad...
); attended Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn; In July 1924 Willis, then aged 15, was the driver of a car that was involved in a collision in New Jersey with a truck loaded with eggs, that damaged both vehicles severely but left both drivers uninjured. On October 22, 1927 at the St Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church at Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Neptune Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. It had a population of 3,342 at the 2010 census. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean Jersey Shore, between Asbury Park to the north and Bradley Beach to the south...
, W.C. Fitkin married Helen E. Shubert (born August 12, 1906 in Minnesota; died May 29, 1993 in Mahopac, New York
Mahopac, New York
Mahopac, New York, is a hamlet in the Town of Carmel in Putnam County, New York. An exurb of New York City some to the south, Mahopac is located on US Route 6 on the County's southern central border with Westchester County...
) They had four children: Abraham Edward Fitkin (born 13 June 13, 1929 in Long Brant, Monmouth County, New Jersey
Monmouth County, New Jersey
Monmouth County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 630,380, up from 615,301 at the 2000 census. Its county seat is Freehold Borough. The most populous municipality is Middletown Township with...
; died March 17, 1992 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
), Willis C. Fitkin, III (born about 1931), Joyce Fitkin Pietri (born about 1933), and Karen E. Fitkin Draper.
Fitkin was a vice-president, director and stockholder in A.E. Fitkin & Co. and A.E. Fitkin & Sons since 1932; president and chairman of Michigan Gas Utilities Co since April 1953; a member of the board of directors of Tampa Electric Co. until 1979; and was a member of the board of trustees of the Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Neptune, New Jersey
Neptune Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 27,690 people, 10,907 households, and 6,805 families residing in the township. The population density was 3,366.8 people per square mile . There were 12,217 housing units at an average density of 1,485.4 per square mile...
from its opening in November 1931. He resided in Naples, Florida
Naples, Florida
Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of July 1, 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 21,653. Naples is a principal city of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated total population of 315,839 on July 1, 2007...
since 1955.
Ralph MacFarland Fitkin
Ralph MacFarland Fitkin (March 7, 1912 - July 16, 1962), attended Adelphi AcademyAdelphi University
Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...
in Brooklyn until 1930, attended Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1931-1932, married Lorene Billie Hastings (born November 6, 1911; died 1987) on February 13, 1932 in Elkton, Maryland
Elkton, Maryland
The town of Elkton is the county seat of Cecil County, Maryland, United States. The population was 11,893 as of the 2000 census and 14,842 according to current July 2008 census estimates. It is the county seat of Cecil County...
with no family members present; and had three sons: Reed Keawaiki Fitkin (born September 22, 1939), Thomas Hastings Fitkin (born 1943; died 1945), and Scott Norris Fitkin (born August 8, 1945 in Hawaii). Ralph Fitkin was a vice-president, director and stockholder in A.E. Fitkin & Co. and A.E. Fitkin & Sons since 1932; served as a lieutenant in the US Navy during World War II, working in the cable censor's office in Hawaii, before retiring from the US Navy as a lieutenant commander
Lieutenant commander (United States)
Lieutenant commander is a mid-ranking officer rank in the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps, with the pay grade of O-4 and NATO rank code OF-3...
; and was the owner of KHON
KHON-TV
KHON-TV is a Fox-affiliated television station in Honolulu, Hawaii. The station broadcasts on virtual channel 2.In addition to its Honolulu broadcast facilities, KHON has relays on all the major Hawaiian Islands to rebroadcast programs outside of metropolitan Honolulu: KHAW-TV in Hilo; KAII-TV in...
in Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...
, (which was part of the Aloha Broadcasting Company, which also included KTOH Lihue Kauai
Kauai
Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...
, KMVI
KMVI
KMVI is a radio station broadcasting a Sports radio format. Licensed to Wailuku, Hawaii, USA, the station is owned by Pacific Radio Group, Inc. and features programing from ESPN Radio and ABC Radio.-External links:...
Wailuku Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
, and KIPA Hilo), from its founding in 1946 until at least 1952. Fitkin, who resided at Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...
, died on July 16, 1962 in Dade County, Florida.
Susan Norris Fitkin
Susan Norris Fitkin died on October 18, 1951, aged 81, in Oakland, CaliforniaOakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
.
Further reading
- Burrow, Gerard N. A History of Yale's School of Medicine: Passing Torches to Others. Yale University Press, 2002.
- Cooley, Steven D. "The Call of Susan Fitkin." Herald of Holiness 74:20 (15 October 1985):9.
- Fitkin, Susan N. Grace Much More Abounding: A Story of the Triumphs of Redeeming Grace During Two Score Years in the Master's Service. Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House, [ca. 1930]. Holiness Data Ministry, 1997.
- Fitkin, Susan N. Holiness and Missions. 1940.
- Fitkin, S. N. A Trip to Africa. New York, 1927.
- Ingersol, Stan. "Mother of Missions: The Evangelistic Vision of Susan Norris Fitkin." Herald of Holiness 80:1 (January 1991):44.
- Ingersol, Stan. "Susan Norris Fitkin: Mother of Missions".
- Laird, Rebecca. "Susan Norris Fitkin", 72-83. In Ordained Women in the Church of the Nazarene. Kansas City, MO: Nazarene, 1993.
- Miller, Basil. Susan N. Fitkin: For God and Missions. Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House, 1949. Digital ed. Holiness Data Ministry, 2006.
- Parker, J. Fred. Mission to the World: A History of Missions in the Church of the Nazarene Through 1985. Nazarene Publishing House, 1988. Traces origins and growth of the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Swaziland.
- Perkins, Phyllis. Women in Nazarene Missions: Embracing the Legacy. Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1994.
- Pinchot, Gifford. Power Monopoly: Its Make-Up and Its Menace. Milford, PA, 1928.
- Smith, Timothy L. Called Unto Holiness: The Story of The Nazarenes: The Formative Years. Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House, 1962. Digital Edition (Holiness Data Ministry, 2006),
- York, Mark A. The Girl Who Wanted to Be a Missionary: The Susan N. Fitkin Story. Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1985.