Morgan, Jack

Morgan, (John Pierpont) Jack (1867–1943) financier, philanthropist; born in Irvington, N.Y. Shortly after graduating from Harvard he married and became a partner in his father's firm, J. P. Morgan & Company. In London (1893–1901) he studied banking at his grandfather's firm, J. S. Morgan & Company. At his father's death (1913), Jack became president and positioned the firm as the sole purchasing agent of more than $3 billion of arms and munitions for the British and French. In 1915 he organized a syndicate of more than 2,000 banks to underwrite loans for the Allies. He served on a committee of bankers reviewing the German war reparations (1922) and was on the 1929 Owen D. Young reparations conference. His philanthropies included the Red Cross, the Episcopal Church, and the New York Lying-In Hospital. In 1923 he established an endowment to make a permanent museum for the extensive rare books and manuscripts of the Morgan Library.