Willard Straight

Willard Dickerman Straight (January 31, 1880 – December 1, 1918) was an American investment banker and diplomat.

An orphan, Straight was born in Oswego, New York. He attended Bordentown Military Institute in New Jersey, and in 1897 he enrolled at Cornell University and graduated in 1901 with a degree in architecture. While a student at Cornell, he joined Delta Tau Delta, edited and contributed to several publications, and helped to organize Dragon Day, an annual architecture students' event. He was also elected the Sphinx Head Society.

After graduating, he was appointed to the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service in Peking. While in the Far East, he worked as a Reuters correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War and went on to serve as American Vice-Counsel in Seoul, Korea and then Havana, Cuba. He returned to China in 1906 as American Consul-General at Mukden, Manchuria. He then went on to work for J. P. Morgan & Co..

Straight married Dorothy Payne Whitney, a member of the prominent Whitney family, in 1911. In 1915, Straight and his wife began the publication of The New Republic, a weekly political magazine. In 1917 they helped to found Asia Magazine, a prominent academic journal on China. He then left J.P. Morgan and went to work for American International Corporation.

During 1915, Straight became involved with the Preparedness Movement, and when the United States entered World War I, he joined the US Army. His service in Europe won him the Distinguished Service Medal and he was promoted to the rank of Major. He died of pneumonia (a complication of the Spanish Flu) in Paris while working to arrange for the arrival of the American Mission to the Paris Peace Conference. He was buried in the American cemetery at Suresnes, outside of Paris.

In his life he made major donations to fund the construction of Schoellkopf Field, and after his death his wife made a substantial donation to Cornell to build the school's first student union building, which was named in his honor.

Children
Children with Dorothy Payne Whitney:
 * Whitney Willard Straight (1912-1979)
 * Beatrice Whitney Straight (1914-2001)
 * Michael Whitney Straight (1916-2004)