Frank Nelaton Dodd
Frank Nelaton Dodd | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 29, 1870 |
| Died | January 9, 1943 (aged 72) Manhattan, New York |
| Education | Peekskill Military Academy |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
| Spouses | Adele Sturges
(m. 1898; div. 1912)Genevieve M. Cary
(m. 1912; died 1923)Lillian Williams
(date missing) |
| Children | 5 |
Frank Nelaton Dodd (March 29, 1870 – January 9, 1943) was an American accountant who served as secretary of the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company for 42 years.
Early life
[edit]Dodd was born on March 29, 1870, in North Babylon, New York.[1] He was a son of Elizabeth (née Foster) Dodd (1842–1918) and Dr. Edward S. Dodd (1839–1908), a Civil War-era physician.[2] His maternal grandfather was William Foster.[3] His paternal grandparents were James E. Dodd and Mary E. (née Pettit) Dodd.[4]
While their winter home was at 198 Washington Park in Brooklyn, the family had a 70-acre summer home in North Babylon known as Millfield. The estate had been in his family for two hundred years (as of 1935), however, the house was first built in 1891 and rebuilt after a devastating 1935 fire.[2]
He was educated at the Peekskill Military Academy before attending Columbia University.[1]
Career
[edit]After graduating from Columbia, Dodd became a certified public accountant in 1896.[5] A "brilliant linguist," he spoke several languages fluently, including Japanese. He was a member of the Columbia University Club, the Babylon Club, the Great South Bay Club, and Theta Delta Chi fraternity as well as the Society of American Magicians.[1] He served as president of the Millfield Realty Company and as a director of the Babylon National Bank and the Bowery Savings Bank.[5]
Dodd retired in 1940 when the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company sold the Metropolitan Opera building to the Metropolitan Opera Association.[6]
Personal life
[edit]Dodd was married three times and had five children, four with his second wife and one with his third wife. On June 1, 1898,[7] Dodd was first married to heiress Adele Sturges (1872–1930),[8] a daughter of Sarah (née Trask) Sturges and Peter D. Sturges.[9] Adele was a granddaughter, and heiress, of New York real estate investor Benjamin H. Trask. She divorced him in 1912 after discovering he had an affair with Genevieve M. Cary (1881–1923), the daughter of their neighbor Daniel Cary.[10] After the divorce, Adele married Bainbridge Percy Clark,[11] the first witness in their divorce action, and he married Genevieve in 1912. They had two sons and four daughters.[5] After her death in 1923,[12] he married Lillian Williams, with whom he had:
- Stanley Foster Dodd (1926–2018), a lawyer.[13]
Dodd, who maintained an apartment at the Hotel Lucerne on the Upper West Side, died at St. Luke's Hospital in New York on January 9, 1943. He was survived by five children, three sons and two daughters.[1] He was buried at the Babylon Rural Cemetery.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "FRANK DODD DIES; OPERA EX-OFFICIAL; Secretary of Metropolitan's Real Estate Co. for More Than Four Decades A CERTIFIED ACCOUNTANT He Spoke Several Languages, Among Them the Japanese--Had Talent as Magician". The New York Times. 11 January 1943. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
- ^ a b TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (3 February 1935). "DODD HOME RUINED IN A $70,000 FIRE; Valuable Antiques Lost at Babylon House of Official of Metropolitan Opera". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ Case and Exceptions. p. 13. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ Portrait and Biographical Record of Suffolk County (Long Island) New York. Chapman. 1896. pp. 839–840. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ a b c Herringshaw, Thomas William (1922). The American Elite and Sociologist Blue Book, Progressive Americans, Prominent in the Social, Industrial and Financial World. American Blue Book Publishers. p. 189. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ World, Times Wide (29 June 1940). "OPERA ASSOCIATION TAKES OVER HOUSE; Metropolitan Property Passes to New Owners--'Historic' Day for City, Mayor Says". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ Dunham, Isaac Watson (1907). Dunham Genealogy: English and American Branches of the Dunham Family. Bulletin Print. p. 119. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ "MRS. CLARK DIES OF HURTS.; Injured in Bay State Crash That Killed Her Husband". The New York Times. 8 August 1930. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
- ^ Miller, Tom (8 December 2015). "Daytonian in Manhattan: The Twin Irvington & Rockland Apts. Nos. 136-142 West 16th Street". daytoninmanhattan.com. Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "WIFE AND FRIENDS SAW HUSBAND KISSING. Mrs. Dodd Divorces Secretary of Metropolitan Opera and Realty Co". The Sun. 27 March 1912. p. 6. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ "B.P. CLARK LOSES LIFE IN UPSET OF HIS CAR; Wife of New York and Newport Resident Is Badly Hurt in Seekonk Accident". The New York Times. 7 August 1930. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "DODD". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 30 March 1923. p. 22. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ "Stanley Foster Dodd, attorney who grew up on historic farm in North Babylon - Babylon Beacon". Babylon Beacon. 4 October 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2023.