Catchings, Waddill (1879–1967)

Abstract

An investment banker and heterodox monetary economist, Waddill Catchings was born in Sewanee, Tennessee, on 6 September 1879, and died in Pompano Beach, Florida, on 31 December 1967. He graduated from Harvard College in 1901 and Harvard Law School in 1904. Joining the New York City law firm Sullivan & Cromwell on a salary of ten dollars a week, Catchings proved skilful in managing the affairs of companies that went into receivership during the financial panic of 1907, and became president of three ironworks. During the First World War, Catchings worked in the export department of J. P. Morgan & Company, then the US purchasing agent for the British and French governments. A Harvard classmate of Arthur Sachs, Catchings joined Goldman, Sachs & Company in 1918 as partner in charge of underwriting, helping to organize General Foods and National Dairy Products (later Kraft).