G. Hermann Kinnicutt

Kinnicutt was born on January 23, 1877, in New York City.[2] He was the eldest of two sons born to Susanna Eleonora (née Kissel) (1852–1910) and Dr. Francis Parker Kinnicutt (1846–1913), who served for many years as trustee and president of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.[3][4] Dr. Kinnicutt was also a close friend of novelist Edith Wharton, and owned a "rambling Colonial Revival house on Cliffwood Street overlooking the golf course," known as Deepdene in Lenox, Massachusetts.[5]

He was named after his maternal grandfather, Gustav Hermann Kissel, a Hesse born banker.[6]

Kinnicutt graduated from Harvard University in 1896.[1]

In 1900, Kinnicutt began his banking career with J.P. Morgan & Co. In 1904, he organized his own firm, known as Kinnicutt & Potter, which continued through various name changes, including Kissel, Kinnicutt & Co. with his uncle, Gustav Kissel.[7][8]

During World War I, Kinnicutt was chairman of the Liberty Loan Committee in New Jersey. In 1922, Kissel, Kinnicutt & Co. offered $3,000,000 in farm loan bonds for Chicago Joint Stock Land Bank.[9] In December 1931, it was announced that Kissel, Kinnicutt & Co. would merge with Kidder, Peabody & Co., at which point, Kinnicutt joined the new firm as a general partner on January 1, 1932.[10]

In 1934, Kinnicutt appeared in Washington before the House Interstate Commerce Committee as a representative of eighteen investment firms from New York to "protest what was termed the paralyzing legislation of the Fletcher-Rayburn stock exchange bill." He also joined with other prominent investment bankers to demand Federal supervision over regulation of stock markets.[1]

At the time of his death, he was a senior partner with Kidder, Peabody which was located at 17 Wall Street.[1]

On April 18, 1907, Kinnicutt married to May Appleton Tuckerman (1886–1947) at the Church of the Incantation at Madison Avenue and 35th Street.[11][12] She was the daughter of Annie Cotton (née Smith) and Bayard Tuckerman and sister of Bayard Tuckerman Jr.[13] Together, the Kinnicutts had homes in Manhattan, Maine, Paris, and a large summer home in Far Hills, New Jersey, known as Mayfields. May and Hermann were the parents of four children, three of whom lived to adulthood:

• Francis Parker Kinnicutt (1908–1961), who married Sybil Kane Jay (1914–1997) on February 14, 1937.[14][12][15]
• Dorothy May Kinnicutt (1910–1994), who married banker Henry Parish II on February 14, 1930.[16][17]
• Gustav Hermann Kinnicutt Jr. (1912–1984), who married Iréne (née Schultze) Solmsen in 1948.[18][19]
• Bayard Tuckerman Kinnicutt (1920–1934), who died aged 17 while playing baseball at St. Mark's School in Southboro, Massachusetts.[20]

Kinnicutt collected antiques, including furniture later described by his interior designer daughter as "that awful English brown."[17] Like his father, he served as a trustee of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, and also as president of the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing.[1]

Kinnicutt died of a heart ailment on December 6, 1943, at 65 East 82nd Street, his home in Manhattan.[1] After a funeral at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension on Fifth Avenue, attended by more than 400 mourners, he was buried at Saint Bernards Cemetery in Bernardsville, New Jersey.[21]