Eugene R. Black

Eugene R. Black (died in 1992) wiki

"Eugene Robert Black, a courtly Georgian who became one of the world's most influential figures as president of the World Bank from 1949 to 1962...

"He was virtually born into banking and public life, being the son and namesake of a banker who was a governor of the Federal Reserve Board, and of Gussie Grady Black, daughter of a Southern editor and orator, Henry Woodfin Grady.

"The future world banker was born on May 1, 1898, in Atlanta, graduated in 1917 from the University of Georgia, served in the Navy in World War I and then joined the Atlanta office of Harris Forbes & Company, a New York bond and banking house.

"Showing a knack for salesmanship, he stayed with Harris Forbes and its successors as a bond expert until 1933, when he joined the Chase National Bank in New York as a second vice president. He became a vice president in 1937...

"It was eventually at the insistence of John J. McCloy, the president of Chase, that he joined the World Bank, which was established by the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 chiefly to provide loans for the rebuilding of postwar Europe. It began business in 1946, and Mr. McCloy became its president in 1947. In that year, Mr. Black joined its staff as executive director for the United States.

"He did so well that in 1949, when Mr. McCloy resigned as the bank's president to become High Commissioner to Germany, Mr. Black succeeded him...

"On meeting President Gamal Abdel Nasser of the United Arab Republic, Mr. Black said, "I am a Wall Street banker." On this unequivocal footing, the two men became respectful friends, and in the long and tricky negotiations arising out of Mr. Nasser's seizure of the Suez Canal, Mr. Black was able to work out payments of the canal company's claims...

"Mr. Black's directorships and the like -- most of which he relinquished while in his 70's -- ranged far afield. He was a trustee of Oglethorpe College in Atlanta and the Johns Hopkins University, of the Institute for International Education and the Population Council Inc., of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Ford Foundation. In addition he was chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library.

"On retiring from the World Bank, he was made chairman of the Brookings Institution and a board member of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, the Chase Manhattan Bank, the Bowery Savings Bank, the International Telephone and Telegraph Company, the American Express Company, Julius Garfinckel & Company, the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and other companies and financial institutions. He was a member of the board of the New York Times Company from 1963 to 1973. Special Adviser to U.N.

"In 1963, Mr. Black was appointed special financial consultant to the United Nations. In this role he assisted in the marketing of United Nations bonds and in dunning members in arrears. After leaving the World Bank he was also a special adviser to the ruler of Kuwait in the 1960's."

• American Conservation Association
• Former Board Members: George Foster Peabody Award