The American Heart Association

AHA's Predecessor, the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease

"In 1915, when heart disease for the first time surpassed tuberculosis as New York City's leading cause of death... Drs. Lewis A. Conner, Robert H. Halsey, John Wyckoff, Haven Emerson, and a few colleagues" established the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease, which later became the New York Heart Association." (To the American Heart Association on its 40th Anniversary. New York Heart Association 1963-64 Annual Report.) Conner was president; Dr. T. Stuart Hart, Vice President; Dr. Nelson L. Deming, Secretary; and Ray Morris, Treasurer. The Executive Committee was Robert H. Halsey, Chairman; Health Commissioner Haven Emerson, Dr. Hubert V. Guile, Mrs. Linzee Blagden, and Dr. Frederick Brush, Superintendant of the Burke Foundation. (Move to Combat Heart Disease. New York Times, Nov. 18, 1916.)

New York Heart Association 1963-64 Annual Report / tobacco document

T. Stuart Hart, Yale 1891

Theodore Stuart Hart was a vice president from 1916-22 and president of the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease from 1922-24; founder and president of the New York Heart Association 1922-24; and founder, director, and chairman of the executive committee of the American Heart Association 1924-28. He was also a director of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association. (Dr. Theodore Hart, A Heart Expert, 81. New York Times, Jan. 2, 1951; Bulletin of Yale University. Obituary Record of Graduates of the Undergraduate Schools Deceased during the Year 1950-1951, pp. 16-17.)

Obituary Record 1950-1951 / Yale University Library

Ray Morris, Skull & Bones 1901

Ray Morris was a partner of White, Weld & Co. from 1911 to 1920, and a partner of Brown Brothers and Brown Brothers Harriman from 1921 until his retirement in 1956. He was a director of numerous companies. (Ray Morris, 82, Retired Banker. New York Times, May 20, 1951.) His wife was Katharine Grinnell, daughter of the E. Morgan Grinnells, and her sister married Alexander Forbes. (Miss Grinnell A Bride. New York Times, Jun. 10, 1910.) He was a trustee of Vassar College and Sarah Lawrence College (Barnes A Vassar Trustee. New York Times, Feb. 23, 1922; R.B. Fosdick Elected At Lawrence College. New York Times, May 29, 1930.)

The Standard Investing Corporation, of which Ray Morris was president, held 1000 shares of P. Lorillard Company Common in 1928. (American Investment Trusts. By John Francis Fowler. Ayer Publishing, 1975.) Directors in 1936 were Thatcher M. Brown, John Foster Dulles, Henry R. Hayes, J.F.B. Mitchell, Ray Morris, George Murnane and W. Lane Rehm. (Standard Investing Re-Elects Old Board. New York Times, Mar. 5, 1936.)

American Investment Trusts / Google Books

Mrs. Morris helped with fund raising for the Presbyterian Hospital (other fund-raisers whose husbands bore the names of Bonesmen included Mrs. Artemus L. Gates, Mrs. John Ellsworth (S&B 1905), Mrs. Stephen H. Philbin (S&B 1910), Mrs. Dean Sage (S&B 1897), Mrs. John Sloane (S&B 1905), and Mrs. Henry Sage Fennimore Cooper (S&B 1917). (Hospital to Begin Fund Drive Today. New York Times, Aug. 29, 1925), and for the American Society for the Control of Cancer (Ball to Help Medical Work. New York Times, Feb. 27, 1927.)

Ray Morris was the third son of Luzon Burritt Morris, Skull & Bones 1854, who was Governor of Connecticut from 1893 to 1895. His sister, Helen Harrison Morris, was the wife of Dr. Arthur Twining Hadley, S&B 1876. (Emily Morris Weds Hamilton Hadley. New York Times, Jul. 14, 1929; Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Academical Year ending in June, 1896, pp. 41-42.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University 1895-1896 / Yale University Library (pdf, 79 pp)

The New York Heart Association

"Dr. Haven Emerson is President of the organization, Dr. Robert H. Halsey, Vice President and Edwin O. Holter is Treasurer. The Board of Governors includes Thomas W. Lamont, Mrs. Alfred F. Hess, Mrs. A.F. Tiffany, Dr. Alfred E. Cohn, Dr. Luther F. Warren, Dr. Nathan E. Brill and Clarence Dillon." (New York Heart Association Appeals for Aid in Its Work. New York Times, Dec. 21, 1924.)

Edwin O. Holter, Skull & Bones 1894

Edwin Olaf Holter (1871-1964), was from a Helena, Montana dynasty of lumber and other family enterprises, whom he assisted with stock market investments. (Yale University. New York Times, May 29, 1893; Edwin O. Holter, Lawyer, Led Prison Association. New York Times, Jun. 8, 1964.) He and Lewis A. Conner were ushers at the wedding of Amos R. Eno Pinchot (S&B 1897) to Gertrude Minturn, and the groom's brother Gifford Pinchot (S&B 1889) was best man. (The Weddings of a Day. New York Times, Nov. 15, 1900.) Holter was engaged to marry Sarah Sage, daughter of Mrs. Dean Sage [Sr.], in Albany. (What is Doing in Society. New York Times, June 4, 1903.) His daughter, Elizabeth Sage Holter, married Lawrence Kirktland Jennings, the son of Oliver G. Jennings, S&B 1887. It was his second marriage. (Nuptials of Miss Holter. New York Times, Mar. 5, 1944.)

"The retirement of [Edwin's brother] Norman B. Holter brought his youngest son, Norman Jefferis (Jeff) Holter (1914-1983) into the family businesses. A chemist and physicist, Jeff Holter was a member of the Navy teams conducting atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll and hydrogen bomb tests at Eniwetok Atoll. After his return to Helena in 1946, he served as a corporate officer for Holter Hardware, Holter Company, Holter Realty, Montana Flour Mills, and Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company. In addition, he founded and worked as research director for the Holter Research Foundation, Inc. This small, non-profit research laboratory was founded in 1947 and financed by private funds and Public Health Service grants. Being involved with the field of medical physics, the foundation is credited with the discovery of several important heart monitoring devices and for the creation of 'Dynamic Electrocardiography.'" (Guide to the Holter Family papers, 1861-1968. Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives, accessed 3-22-08.)

Guide to the Holter Family papers, 1861-1968 / Northwest Digital Archives, Washington State University

Symposium on tobacco, NYAM, 1933

Drs. Lewis A. Conner, Robert H. Halsey and Harlow Brooks took part in a symposium on "recent studies on the effects of tobacco in man," held at the New York Academy of Medicine. Drs. Marion B. Sulzberger of the Post Graduate Hospital and Joseph Harkavy of Mount Sinai Hospital blamed hypersensitivity to tobacco for thromboangiitis obliterans. Removal of nicotine from the extract with which they injected the subjects did not change the effects. (Discover Cause of a Rare Disease. New York Times, Feb. 3, 1933.)

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cast 3-22-08