The Invisible Man of the New World Order: Raymond B. Fosdick (1883-1972)

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4 Responses

  1. Futureshock says:

    Hi Will / Terry,

    I suggest you read the information provided in the following link, which might be of interest. It’s about the collaboration between Mr. Fosdick and the New York Masons around the time of WWI.

    http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/the_builder_1919_march.htm

    Greets.

  2. Futureshock says:

    Sorry to bother again.

    Although the essay is very solid I kept the feeling something is missing. Nobody comes to the absolute top that easy. He was more or less pushed into some of his positions, he himself thinking he wasn’t worthy yet. But he had to. So I thought that maybe for instance the importance of the earlier Fosdick family or the family he married into has been obscured. That happens quite often, so that new people seem to be ‘self made’. So I started to look into it and I found some interesting information which might make someone feel like researching this deeper.

    – It seems on April 5th, 1932, Fosdick’s wife killed herself and their two kids. She claimed insanity and “progressive paranoia”. It reminds me a bit of the stories you read with families inbreeding, like the Darwins etc. did. But that’s speculation.
    https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1964&dat=19320405&id=_XMzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JLYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2527,341005&hl=en

    – Her maiden name was Findley / Finlay / Finley. Once again a nasty name change to make it harder for the conspiranoids to research, haha. But I’m sure:
    http://records.ancestry.com/winifred_finlay_records.ashx?pid=67177129

    – The father of Fosdick’s murderous wife was “George Dick Finlay (~1849 -1925) was a director of the P. Lorillard Tobacco Company in the 1890s, and one of the executors of Pierre Lorillard’s will. He was a director of the Commercial Trust Company of New Jersey, whose other directors included George G. Haven, James N. Jarvie, and Richard A. McCurdy of the Guaranty Trust; and the Jersey City Trust Company. (Annual Bank Elections. New York Times, Jan. 13, 1904.)”
    http://www.smokershistory.com/Lorillar.htm

    – The Lorillard family were besides bigshot tobacco manufacturers also longtime philanthropists.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Abraham_Lorillard

    – Old man Lorillard also was a 33 degree Mason and honorary member of the Supreme Council:
    http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A07E1DA123BE533A25753C3A9639C94619ED7CF

    – Fosdick’s father was Frank Sheldon Fosdick. I found a biography, which [of course] reads:

    “He is a Mason, member of Washington Lodge and Adytum Chapter, a member of the Royal Arcanum, the University Club, Independent Club and various other societies. He is the only one in Buffalo who belongs to the American Philological Association.”
    http://www.onlinebiographies.info/ny/erie/a-l/fosdick-fs.htm

    Forefathers mentioned are:

    – John Spencer Fosdick [founder Westfield Academy]

    – Solomon Fosdick [pastor of the Riverside Church in New York]

    I’ve found an e-book on the anchestry of Solomon Fosdick, which lists several as being high Masons.
    https://archive.org/stream/fosdickfamilyoys00fosd/#page/120/mode/2up

    – It seems the name Fosdick can even be traced back to the French Huguenots, according to someone else with the same name:
    https://archive.org/stream/frenchbloodiname00infosd/#page/392/mode/2up/search/fosdick

    This early Fosdick is in the book described as being among the same group as Paul Revere. The Lorillards are also descended from the Huguenots.

    I think it might be interesting to look into this angle. They always have some kind of help getting to the top.

  3. Will B says:

    There are some interesting tidbits there, that might yield something under closer examination. Though the Masonic angle may prove to be a non-starter as it seems that neither Woodrow Wilson nor John D. Rockefeller Jnr. were masons. That he came into their respective orbits just seems like uncanny good fortune that he was astute enough to capitalize on.

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