Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, a founder of Pan American Airways, a Truman Administration official and for nearly three-quarters of a century a prominent figure in horse racing and the arts, died yesterday at his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He was 93. A family spokesman said Mr. Whitney died of natural causes at Cady Hill House, the stately old country manor that had been his principal residence in recent years. It was one of several homes he maintained in the United States and abroad, but it was the one he favored as the center of the business and social activities that he directed with his wife, Marylou, one of society's busiest and best-known hostesses and arts patrons. Mr. Whitney, known as Sonny, was the heir to oil and rail fortunes, a leading thoroughbred owner and breeder, an aviation-industry pioneer, the first assistant secretary of the Air Force, one of the founders of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and a backer of such notable movies as "Gone With the Wind." The article went on to say that the public confused Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney with his first cousin, John Hay Whitney, publisher of The New York Herald Tribune and ambassador to the Court of St. James's. Sonny Whitney was the son of Harry Payne Whitney; his cousin, who was five years younger and known as Jock, was the son of Payne Whitney. The cousins both attended Groton and Yale, invested in motion pictures, became ranking polo players, owned racing stables and lived for years on Long Island. And both inherited fortunes of approximately the same size. Jock Whitney died in 1982. Sonny Whitney was born on Feb. 20, 1899, in Roslyn, L.I., and he was spectacularly well-connected. His father's father, William C. Whitney, made several fortunes in oil, tobacco and New York City streetcars and served as Secretary of the Navy under President Grover Cleveland. His mother, Gertrude Vanderbilt, was the daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt 2d, one of the legendary figures in railroads and finance in the late 19th century. His great-uncle Oliver C. Payne was treasurer of the Standard Oil Company. His family's wealth, and the frequent absence of his parents on long trips abroad, seemed to trigger a craving for success in the young Whitney. He entered Groton at 12, graduated at 18 and promptly enlisted for pilot training in the aviation section of the Army. It was 1917, and the United States was entering the war that had been raging in Europe for three years. He was commissioned at 19 and was assigned to Carruthers Field in Texas as a flying instructor. When the war ended, he enrolled at Yale, where he rowed on the crew and was captain of the squash team. But he became better known in the Sunday supplements as a playboy, a tall and dashing figure who made headlines by his social involvements and even engagements. After graduating from Yale in 1922, Mr. Whitney embarked on a series of careers in business and entertainment. In 1927, in his most important venture, he founded Pan American Airways with a Yale friend, Juan Trippe. He was its chairman of the board from 1931 until 1941, and during that time the airline vastly expanded its overseas operations, becoming a symbol of American technological prowess. In another major venture, he took control of the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company in Canada in 1931. He remained its chairman of the board until 1964. He also took a turn at politics when he ran for Congress in 1932 as a Democrat from Long Island, but he lost to the incumbent, Robert L. Bacon, one of his Westbury neighbors. And during the next few years, he widened his interests in several directions: He purchased his father's horse farm and racing stable in Kentucky, he opened the Marine Studios in St. Augustine, Fla., which became the underwater attraction Marineland, and he went in to moviemaking with the producer David O. Selznick, helping to finance and produce such Hollywood films as "Gone With the Wind," "A Star Is Born" and "Rebecca." A Return to Uniform When the country entered World War II in 1941, Mr. Whitney promptly went back onto active duty in the Air Corps and served as a staff officer in the Pacific, India and the Middle East. He rose to the rank of colonel and received the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Service Medal and other decorations. In 1947, Mr. Whitney joined the Truman Administration when he was named the first assistant secretary of the United States Air Force. Two years later, he was named under secretary of commerce. He was also a presidential envy to Britain, Italy, Spain and Luxembourg in 1950. The colors of the C.V. Whitney Racing Stable, Eton blue and brown, frequently made the winner's circle at tracks round the world, as they had done in the time of Mr. Whitney's grandfather. Over the years, 450 stakes winners were bred or raised on the 1,000 acres of the Whitney farm in Lexington, Ky. The star of the stable was the great Equipoise, who won 29 of his 51 races and ran in the money 43 times in the early 1930's. None of Mr. Whitney's horses won a Kentucky Derby, but one, Phalanx, came within a head of winning in 1947 and won the 1947 Belmont Stakes. Mr. Whitney was married four times and had five children. He was married to Marie Norton from 1923-29; to Gladys Hopkins from 1931-41; to Eleanor Searle from 1941-58, and since then to Marie Louise Schroeder Hosford, an actress who had four children from her previous marriage. For three and a half decades, Marylou and Sonny Whitney reigned in high society from the half-dozen homes that they maintained in splendor on two continents: in the Adirondacks, on Fifth Avenue, on the farm in Kentucky, in Palm Beach, Fla., and in Spain, as well as in Saratoga Springs. Their philanthropies were diverse, including significant donations, for instance, to the Whitney Museum of American Art, which was founded by Mr. Whitney's mother, and to the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., which were beset by financial problems. In addition to his wife, Mr. Whitney is survived by three children, Cornelia Vanderbilt Whitney, Nancy Lutz and Cornelius Searle Whitney; four stepchildren, Marian Louise Llewellyn, Frank Hobbs Hosford, Henry Deere Hosford and Heather Schlachter, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.