Eben Pyne
President of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company
In office
1957–1963
Preceded byRichard S. Perkins
Succeeded byJames Stillman Rockefeller (as president of First National City Bank)
Personal details
Born(1917-06-14)June 14, 1917
DiedApril 11, 2007(2007-04-11) (aged 89)
Hobe Sound, Florida
Spouses
Hilda Holloway
​
​
(m. 1941; died 1986)​
    Nancy Gray
    ​
    (m. 1995)​
    RelationsPercy Rivington Pyne II (grandfather)
    Percy Rivington Pyne Jr. (uncle)
    Parent(s)Grafton Howland Pyne
    Leta Constance Wright
    EducationGroton School
    Alma materPrinceton University
    Military service
    Branch/service
    RankMajor
    Battles/warsWorld War II
    AwardsBronze Star Medal

    Eben Wright Pyne (June 14, 1917 – April 11, 2007) was an American soldier and banker who served as president of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company (which later became Citibank).

    Early life

    Pyne was born on June 14, 1917. He was a son of financier Grafton Howland Pyne (1890–1935)[1] and Leta Constance (née Wright) Pyne (1892–1957). Percy Rivington Pyne III,[2] John Wright Pyne,[3] and Alison (née Pyne) Ewing (wife of New Jersey State Senator John H. Ewing).[4][5]

    His paternal grandparents were the prominent banker and philanthropist Percy Rivington Pyne II and Maud (née Howland) Pyne (daughter of New York merchant Gardiner Greene Howland).[6] His paternal uncle was Percy Rivington Pyne Jr., a flier with the 103d Aero Squadron during World War I.[7] His maternal grandfather was prominent art collector Eben Wright.[6]

    Pyne attended the Groton School where he played on the football team before attending Princeton University, where he graduated in 1939.[5]

    Career

    After Princeton, he became a clerk at Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, an affiliate of what was then National City Bank of New York. After the World War II, he rejoined the bank and was promoted quickly. In 1957, he was named president of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company,[8] succeeding Richard S. Perkins who had been president since 1951.[9] In 1959, it became First National City Trust which was incorporated into First National City Bank in 1963,[10] when he was named "senior vice president in charge of the trust and investment division" before retiring in 1982.[5]

    In 1958, he was elected to the finance and currency committee of the New York Chamber of Commerce alongside Roy Reierson of Bankers Trust and Dudley H. Mills of the Discount Corporation of New York.[11] In 1960, he joined the board of W. R. Grace & Co., which his wife's family founded.[12]

    Public service

    In 1964, he was recruited by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller "to help rescue the failing Long Island Rail Road."[5] After helping create "a $200 million modernization program" that was approved by the New York Legislature in 1965, "Pyne was appointed to a seat on the transportation agency's original five-member governing board.[13] In that post, which he held until 1975, he helped steer the agency’s acquisition of other ailing suburban lines that had been merged into Conrail and later formed Metro-North." He was also a commissioner of the New York City Transit Authority, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority and Stewart International Airport.[5]

    In 1982, he was named by President Ronald Reagan to the Grace Commission (named after its director, the industrialist J. Peter Grace) which was "assigned to identify and suggest remedies for waste and abuse in the federal government."[5]

    Military service

    In 1940, Pyne joined the field artillery of the New York National Guard as a second lieutenant and during World War II, he fought in North Africa and Italy. His small artillery-observation plane was shot down by enemy fire over the Po Valley in Northern Italy, "he was briefly taken prisoner, but jumped off his German captors’ truck and escaped to Allied lines with the help of Italian partisans. He returned home in 1946 as a Major, with the Bronze Star and five battle stars."[5]

    Personal life

    In 1941 Pyne was married to Hilda Elise Holloway (1920–1986), a daughter of Hilda (née Holmes) Holloway and William Grace Holloway, chairman of W. R. Grace & Co.[14][15] Hilda was an avid golfer who showed horses at the Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley.[16][17] Before her death in 1986, they were the parents of three daughters:[5]

    • Constance Howland Pyne (1943–1976),[18] who married Randall Steele Howard in 1964.[19][20] They divorced and she married Thomas Albert Ranges in 1970.[21]
    • Lillian Stokes Pyne (b. 1947), who married artist Peter Stockton Corbin in 1973.[22][23][24]
    • Mary Alison Pyne (b. 1960), who married Donald Bruce McNaughton in 1990.[25][26]

    In 1995, married Nancy Maguire (née Beebe) Gray, the daughter of Brig. Gen. Hamilton Ewing Maguire and the widow of Gordon Gray, a former secretary of the Army and president of the University of North Carolina.[27] Pyne had homes in Manhattan, Old Westbury on Long Island, Hobe Sound, Florida, and Northeast Harbor, Maine.[5]

    Pyne died on April 11, 2007, at his home in Hobe Sound, Florida.[5]

    References

    1. ↑ "GRAFTON H. PYNE.; Former Member of New York Stock Exchange and Financier" (PDF). The New York Times. October 9, 1935. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
    2. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths PYNE, PERCY R. III". The New York Times. January 14, 1999. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    3. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths PYNE, JOHN WRIGHT". The New York Times. September 17, 1999. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    4. ↑ Times, The New York (February 2, 1951). "ALISON PYNE WED TO JOHN H. EWING; COUPLE WED HERE YESTERDAY". The New York Times. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Saxon, Wolfgang (April 13, 2007). "Eben Pyne 89, Who Helped Revive Suburban Railroads, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
    6. 1 2 Reynolds, Cuyler. Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley, Vol. 3 (1914), pp. 1413–14.
    7. ↑ "PERCY R. PYNE JR., 46, FLIER IN WORLD WAR; Won D. S. C. in France in 1918 Late Father Railroad Official" (PDF). The New York Times. December 10, 1941. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
    8. ↑ "City Bank Farmers Promotes Two". The New York Times. January 3, 1957. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
    9. ↑ "CITY BANK FARMERS TRUST ADVANCES TWO". The New York Times. December 5, 1951. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
    10. ↑ Times, Special to The New York (January 4, 1963). "NATIONAL CITY HIT 10 BILLION IN 1962; Reports Record Resources --Operating Earnings Up --Wells Fargo Down Wells Fargo Bank Security First National Bank ANNUAL REPORTS ISSUED BY BANKS United California Bank Union Bank Chemical Bank Crocker Anglo National Bank Morgan Guaranty Trust". The New York Times. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
    11. ↑ "Head of Chamber Unit Named". The New York Times. May 7, 1958. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    12. ↑ "Two Join the Board of W.R. Grace; W.R. GRACE & CO. HOLDS MEETING". The New York Times. May 11, 1960. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    13. ↑ "ROCKEFELLER NAMES RONAN TO RAIL JOB; Aide to Governor to Head New Agency at $45,000". The New York Times. June 22, 1965. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    14. ↑ "HILDA E. HOLLOWAY ENGAGED TO MARRY; Alumna of Miss Hewitt's Will Be Bride of Lieut. Eben Pyne of Fort Ethan Alien MADE HER DEBUT IN 1938 Fiance Prepared at the Groton School and Was Graduated From Princeton in 1939". The New York Times. August 6, 1941. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
    15. ↑ "HILDA E. HOLLOW AY A BRIDE TOMORROW; She Will Be Wed to Lieut. Eben Wright Pyne in Westbary, L. L". The New York Times. December 15, 1941. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    16. ↑ Times, Special to The New York (May 25, 1961). "MRS. PYNE'S TEAM WINS; Takes Long Island Best-Ball Golf by 4 Shots With 61". The New York Times. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
    17. ↑ "Pyne Says Piping Rock Show Will Continue for Many Years". The New York Times. September 11, 1966. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
    18. ↑ "Constance H. Pyne Feted by Parents". The New York Times. June 21, 1962. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
    19. ↑ "Constance Pyne Engaged to Wed Randall Howard; Students at Garland and Johns Hopkins Will Be Married". The New York Times. March 8, 1964. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    20. ↑ "Miss Constance Pyne Is Married; Graduate of Garland Junior College Wed to Randall Howard". The New York Times. June 28, 1964. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    21. ↑ "Constance Pyne Howland Wedding to Thomas Albert Ranges". New York Daily News. September 6, 1970. p. 141. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    22. ↑ "Peter Corbin Is Fiance Of Lillian Stokes Pyne". The New York Times. February 25, 1973. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
    23. ↑ "Lillian Stokes Tyne's Wedding Bridal Is Set To Peter Corbin Held on L.I. By Miss Falk". The New York Times. October 7, 1973. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    24. ↑ Davis, Tom; Corbin, Peter (2005). Peter Corbin: An Artist's Creel. Hudson Hills. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-55595-256-3. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    25. ↑ "A Fall Wedding For Alison Pyne". The New York Times. August 12, 1990. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
    26. ↑ "Mary Alison Pyne Is Married on L.I." The New York Times. October 7, 1990. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
    27. ↑ "WEDDINGS; Nancy M. Gray and Eben W. Pyne". The New York Times. June 18, 1995. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
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