Julian Roosevelt

Roosevelt was born on November 14, 1924, to George Emlen Roosevelt and Julia Morris Addison,^[2] the sister of James Thayer Addison.^[3] Through his father he was a first cousin twice removed of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt attended Philips Exeter (1943)^[4] and later, Harvard University, where he participated in crew.^[5]

From 1942 to 1946, he served in the United States Coast Guard, and was discharged from the Army Reserve Field Artillery in 1955 after 8 years of active reserve duty.^[6]

He participated in the 1948 Olympics and became a gold medalist in the 1952 Olympics in the 6-meter class,^[7][8] he was later a member of the International Olympic Committee who advocated removing political motives from the games, criticizing the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the banning of South African athletes.^[9]

After the Olympics, he became a partner of Dick & Merle Smith, an investment brokerage firm in New York City that was created as part of the break-up of Roosevelt & Son due to the passage of the Glass–Steagall Act in 1934. He also served as a trustee of the Union Square Savings Bank and was a director of Fundamental Investors, Inc., also in New York.^[6] He later served as a vice president of Sterling Grace & Company.^[10]

He was twice married, first in 1946 in Providence, Rhode Island, to Florence Madeleine Graham (d. 1991), the daughter of E. W. Sterling Graham of Pittsburgh,^[4][11] and was descended from William Bradford, the 2nd Governor of Plymouth Colony. Before their divorce in 1955,^[12] they had three children together:

• Nicholas Paul Roosevelt (b. 1949)^[13]
• George Emlen Roosevelt III (b. 1951)^[10]
• Robin Addison Roosevelt (1954–1999)^[14][15]

After their divorce in 1955, she married later that same year to Eric Ridder (1918–1996), the publisher of The Journal of Commerce,^[16] who also won the gold medal in sailing with Julian in 1952.^[17][18] Roosevelt married second to Margaret Fay Schantz, who was also divorced, from Donald William Scholle,^[19] in 1957.^[20] She was the daughter of Dr. Charles W. Schantz and was an alumna of the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York.^[6] Together, they had:

• Fay Satterfield Roosevelt (b. 1959),^[21] who married Julian Potter Fisher II, in 1985.^[22]

In March 1957, his mansion on Center Island on Long Island, New York, was ruined by a fire.^[23]

Roosevelt died of liver cancer on March 27, 1986, at Glen Cove Hospital in Manhasset, New York, not far from his home in Oyster Bay.^[10]