Charles W. Harkness

Charles W. Harkness

Charles William Harkness (December 17, 1860 – May 1, 1916) was the son of Stephen V. Harkness, an original investor in the company that became Standard Oil, and his second wife, the former Anna M. Richardson.

Charles was born in Monroeville, Ohio, and his early education was in Cleveland. He earned a B.A. from Yale College with the Class of 1883. Harkness, his half-brother William L. Harkness (Yale Class of 1881), and others help found Wolf's Head Society, known originally as The Third Society, at Yale in 1883. Harkness married Miss Mary Warden.

While at Yale, he was described as "care-free, happy, irresponsible as the rest of us." On his father's death in 1888, Charles inherited stock in Standard Oil amounting to the second largest holding in the company, surpassed only by that of the Rockefeller family. Harkness became a director at Standard Oil and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad company, and managed his father's immense holdings.

Harkness was a member of the University Club of New York and the Morris County Golf Club of Morristown, NJ.

He died suddenly in 1916, leaving a fortune estimated at $170,000,000.