Prescott Bush

Prescott Sheldon Bush (May 15, 1895, Columbus, Ohio – October 8, 1972, New York City) was a U.S. Senator from Connecticut and a Wall Street executive banker with Brown Brothers Harriman. His son, George H. W. Bush, and grandson George W. Bush would both later become U.S. presidents. His father was Samuel Prescott Bush and his mother was Flora Sheldon.

Corporate success

His father-in-law, George Herbert Walker, and Walker's partner, Averell Harriman, brought him on as an officer in their investment banking firm, W. A. Harriman and Company in 1926. When it merged with Brown Brothers Harriman in 1931, he became a partner in the new firm of Brown Brothers Harriman. Bush called it "my good fortune" to work with close friends, including Yale classmates (and members of the Skull and Bones) E. Roland Harriman, Knight Woolley, and Ellery James, as well as Robert A. Lovett and Thomas McCance.

Related Topics:
Averell Harriman - 1926 - Brown Brothers Harriman - 1931 - Robert A. Lovett - Thomas McCance

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As a managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman, he sat on several corporate boards, including the following:

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• Dresser Industries. An oil drilling equipment supply company. in 1928 W.A. Harriman and Company paid $4,000,000 for Dresser's corporate stock, and sold securities against the company. In 1929 Bush refinanced Dresser "so that we retained a substantial measure of control." In 1930, E. Roland Harriman and Bush became members of the board (Bush served until 1952), and installed their Yale classmate Henry Neil Mallon as chairman. Mallon and Bush were lifelong friends. (In 1948, Mallon hired George H.W. Bush to work at Dresser and George H.W. Bush named one of his sons, Neil Mallon Bush, after Mallon). In September 1998, Dresser merged with Halliburton and is now known as Halliburton Company.
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Bush was introduced to William Paley, founder of CBS, by Averell Harriman, who in 1929 had represented CBS in a merger with Paramount Studios. In 1932, he took an active role in arranging the financing for Paley to purchase the company. Bush joined the board of directors and retained the position for several years.
• Union Banking Corporation. Established in August 1924 with George Herbert Walker as president, Prescott Bush served on the board of directors from 1934 to 1943 with E. Roland Harriman, H. J. Kouwenhoven, Johann G. Groeninger, Harold D. Pennington, Cornelis Lievense, Ray Morris, and E. S. James.
• Harriman Fifteen Corporation. Located at 1 Wall Street in New York. Bush and Averell Harriman were sole directors of the company, with George Herbert Walker serving as company president beginning in 1930. Half of the company's holdings were in the Silesian Holding Company, (see Silesian-American Corporation), according to a 1931 report.
• Hydrocarbon Research Company. Now known as Hydrocarbon Technologies, Inc. The company was formed in 1943 by Percival Cleveland Keith, Jr., (December 24, 1900 - July 9, 1976), to develop and commercialize chemical and energy technologies. In August 2001, the Company was acquired by Headwaters Incorporated.
• Vanadium Corporation of America. This company was headed by Charles M. Schwab and Jacob Leonard Replogle. In August 1942, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers established the Manhattan Engineer District (MED), also known as the Manhattan Project, to develop atomic weapons and to procure the raw materials, principally uranium, necessary for their production. The MED contracted the Vanadium Corporation of America and the U.S. Vanadium Corporation (owned by Union Carbide) to procure and process uranium bearing ore.
• United States Guaranty Trust. Bush was on the board of directors with Eugene W. Stetson (president) and Samuel R. Bertron (vice president).
• The Simmons Company. This company would later be a major financial contributor to the campaigns of both Bush presidencies.
• The Continental Bank & Trust Company of New York
• Commercial Pacific Cable Company
• Hamburg-America Line
• Prudential Insurance
• Pan American Airlines. Bush's son, Prescott Bush, Jr., joined the company in 1943, before his marriage to Elizabeth (Kauffman) Bush.
• Massachusetts Investors Second Fund
• Rockbestos Products Corporation. Located in New Haven, Connecticut. Received government supply contracts in the late 1930s to supply electrical cable to the Navy.
• Pennsylvania Water and Power Company

He was a member of the Executive Committee of the United States Golf Association (USGA) from 1928-1935, serving successively as Secretary, Vice President and President. The USGA sponsors the Walker Cup Match, which is named after George Herbert Walker, who was the organization's president in 1920, when it originated.

Related Topics:
United States Golf Association - Walker Cup - 1920

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In the 1940s, he was national campaign chairman of the United Service Organizations and National War Fund.

Related Topics:
United Service Organizations - National War Fund

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