Biography
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was the son of George Dunton Widener (1861–1912) and Eleanor Elkins Widener, and the grandson of the extremely wealthy entrepreneur, Peter A. B. Widener (1834–1915).
Along with his father and mother, in April 1912 Harry Elkins Widener boarded the RMS Titanic at Cherbourg, France bound for New York City. After the ship struck an iceberg, his father placed his mother and her maid in a lifeboat; the women were eventually rescued by the steamship Carpathia. Harry Elkins Widener and his father both went down with the ship. Their bodies, if recovered, were not identified. A memorial service for them was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania where stained glass windows were dedicated in their memory.
He was a graduate of The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where two buildings are dedicated to him. Widener was a 1907 graduate of Harvard College, where he was a member of the Owl Club. His widowed mother built the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, the largest university library in the world, in his memory. Designed by Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer, it opened on Commencement Day 1915.
Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania is also named after the prominent Widener family.
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