Early Years
Born in New York City, he was the eldest son of the very wealthy businessman and United States Secretary of the Navy, William C. Whitney and brother to William Payne Whitney.
Harry Payne Whitney studied at Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts then attended Yale University, graduating with a law degree in 1894. He was a member of the Skull and Bones.
In 1904, H. P. Whitney inherited $24,000,000 from his father and in 1917 approximately $12,000,000 from his uncle, Oliver Hazard Payne. On August 25, 1896 he married Gertrude Vanderbilt, a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family with whom he had three children: Flora Payne Whitney (1897), Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (1899), and Barbara Whitney (1903).
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Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“I could be, I discovered, by turns stern, loving, wise, silly, youthful, aged, racial, universal, indulgent, strict, with a remarkably easy and often cunning detachment ... various ways that an adult, spurred by guilt, by annoyance, by condescension, by loneliness, deals with the prerogatives of power and love.”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“The easiest way to get a reputation is to go outside the fold, shout around for a few years as a violent atheist or a dangerous radical, and then crawl back to the shelter.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)