Lorillard S. Spencer
President of Atlantic Aircraft
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Biography
Lorillard Suydam Spencer Sr. (July 4, 1883 - June 9, 1939) was president of Atlantic Aircraft and was prominent in Newport, Rhode Island society. He served as the military secretary to Charles Seymour Whitman, the New York Governor.
Biography
He was born on July 4, 1883 in Manhattan, New York to Lorillard Spencer and Caroline Suydam Berryman, a granddaughter of Stephen Whitney of New York. Caroline would later become a missionary in the Philippines.
He married his first wife, Mary Ridgeley Sands (1885–1936), on September 19, 1905 at Trinity Church in Manhattan, New York City. They divorced in March 1922. They had one son together named Lorillard Jr. (June 11, 1906 – August 27, 1981).
On December 16, 1910, he was elected as the temporary chairman of the New York City Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
During World War I, he was the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 15th New York Infantry. In September 1918, during the Battle of Champagne-Argonne, he was stuck six times by German machine gun fire. Severely wounded, he was sent home to recover. For his bravery, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour. The latter was presented to him in July 1919 by Ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand. When the men of the 3rd Battalion returned home after the war, he was there to greet them, his fractured leg still in a sling.
He married Katherine Emmons Force on December 6, 1922. They had two sons, Stephen Wolcott Spencer (April 22, 1925 – July 21, 2010) and William Hurlbut Force Spencer (June 13, 1927 – October 3, 2013).
He died on June 10, 1939 at his cottage, Chasteullux, in Newport, Rhode Island.
Legacy
The earliest Filipino Boy Scout troop recorded in history was named after him due to the monetary support provided by his mother, who was an American charity worker in Sulu, Philippines. The Lorillard Spencer Trophy serves as the perpetual award to a local Boy Scout council in the Philippines obtaining the highest record of advancement and membership for the year. The trophy is inscribed as "The Lorillard Spencer Trophy Presented by His Mother in Loving Memory of a Loyal Scouter".