view raw text
Announce Policy Body and Operating Staff for Greater New York Association Hanes Is President of Board4 Of Trustees; Name Tompkins Administrative Division Head NEW YORK, N. Y., June 2.— George D. Widener, honorary chairman of the board of trustees, announced today the policymaking committees and operating organization of the Greater New York Association, Inc. which, when incorporated, will carry out The Jockey Clubs plan to rehabilitate and modernize the New York tracks. Legislation authorizing the plan was passed by the the New York state | legislature on April 2 and approved by Gov. Averell Harriman on May 7. Application for approval of the corporate set-up of the new association will be filed with the New York State Racing Commission at an early date. John W. Hanes, corporation executive and former Under-Secretary of the Treasury, is to be the first president of the associations board of trustees. Widener pointed out that Hanes headed the original special committee of The Jockey Club, consisting ► ■ ■ J of Christopher T. Chenery and Harry F. Guggenheim, that formulated the plan. Widener observed that the experience of Hanes and that of the executive committee will "assure the highest order of business competence in carrying out the plan." Following are the various committees of the Greater New York Association, Inc.: Executive Committee: John Hay Whitney, chairman; James Cox Brady, Christopher T. Chenery, John C. Clark, Harry F. Guggenheim, Ogden Phipps and Alfred G. Vanderbilt. George D. Widener and John W. Hanes, ex-officio members. Building Committee: Alfred G. Vanderbilt, chairman; John C. Clark,. Harry F. Guggenheim, Robert J. Kleberg, Jr., and William Woodward, Jr. Operations Committee: Alfred G. Vanderbilt, chairman; George H. Bostwick, John C. Clark, Harry F. Guggenheim, William Woodward, Jr. Finance Committee: Christopher T" Chenery, chairman; James Cox Brady, Howell E. Jackson, Ogden Phipps, John M. Schiff and William Woodward, Jr. Committee on Laws: Walter D .Fletcher, Continued on Page Seren : : : Announce Policy, Operating Groups for Greater N.Y.Assn. Hanes Is President of Board* Of Trustees; Name Tompkins Administrative Division Head Continued from Page One Chairman; James Cox Brady, Christopher T. Chenery, Howell E. Jackson, Whitney Stone and F. S; von Stade. Committee on Archives and Trophies: Walter M. Jeffords, chairman; George H. Bostwick, Ogden Phipps, Whitney Stone and F. S.Von Stade. Widener, noting that "Mr. Vanderbilt is a highly experienced horseman and racetrack operator," said "his own talents and those of the members of his committee fit them ideally to make the policies for the racing operation." Widener also announced that B. A. Tompkins, executive vice-president and director of the Bankers Trust Company, has been selected to be the first president of the administrative division of the association. Widener said that whle the trustees and committee members will serve without pay, Tompkins will be salaried. "It is fortunate," said Widener, "for the entemrise and for the racing world that Mr. Tompkins is making himself available for this important public service. He has had wide experience in large business affairs and will bring to this unique project the qualities of leadership, judgement, and cooperation that will be needed. "The organization setup provides a framework incorporating both a policymaking and an operating group that will enable the plans for better plant facilities at the tracks to go forward. The building committee will consider the preliminary plans that have been proposed and examine all the ideas that have been suggested from horsemen, turf writers and the public so that the final plan can be considered and prepared by architects for the construction contracts. The organization of the existing associations, even after purchase, will continue as they -are for a long time until construction work is well under way and thereafter personnel for the new setup will be largely drawn from the existing organizations. Tompkins in Complete Charge "Mr. Tompkins, as active administrative head of the associatin, will be in complete charge of all its activities subject only to the supervision of the board of trustees and its committees. His title is president of the administrative division of the association. Under him will be a general manager, the most experienced and capable racetrack manager that the association can find throughout the country. Under his direction separate managers will be designated to operate the tracks which the association hopes to acquire. These and the other association officers have not yet been selected." Tompkins has been "a turf enthusiast virtually all of his life. He owns a farm adjoining that of Dooley Adams at Southern Pines, N. C, and has ridden in crosscountry steeplechases. He has resigned his position as executive vice-president of Bankers Trust Company, but will continue as a director and member of the executive committee of Bankers Trust Company, where he has spent practically all of his business career. He is expected to assume his duties with the Greater New York Association about August 1. Tompkins attended preparatory school at Andover and was graduated from Yale University in the class of 1915. He became associated with the Astor Trust Company in 1917, and when that institution was merged with Bankers Trust Comuany became first a junior officer of the latter, then a vice-president and subsequently an executive vice-president. He is a* director of the International. Paper Company, Otis Elevator Company, Babcock and Wilcox, Flintkote, National Aviation, Detroit Edi- JOHN W. HANES— Will serve as president of the Board of Trustees of the Greater New York Association. son, General American Investors and the Bowery Savings Bank. In the philanthropic field he has been president of the Childrens Village and a member of the boards of Henry Street Settlement and the hospital for special surgery. He is married and has four children. Cassidy Secretary General Todays meeting was the first of the initial board of 20 trustees selected, subject to approval by the State Racing Commission, at the May meeting of The Jockey Club. In anticipation of the early incorporation of the new association, the trustees met to v discuss organization of the association. Marshall Cassidy is to be secretary general of the association. Active negotiations are in progress for the financing, Widener said, and discussions are in progress for acquisition of the four existing tracks. It is hoped thsee negotiations can be completed and necessary approvals of the New York State Racing Commission obtained so that the new association will be in a position to acquire the tracks promptly. The Jockey Clubs plan to reyamp the New York racing set-up was first revealed tothe public on September 20, 1954, when a special committee of that body sent*its now-famous letter outlining the proposals to Ashley Trimble Cole, chairman of the New York State Racing Commission. The committee had been appointed more than a year before that date to study New York racing and make concrete suggestions for its improvement. The original Jockey Club plan called for Belmont Park to be .completely rebuilt into a "super track" and Saratoga to undergo a ,000,000 improvement program, with racing at Aqueduct and Jamaia to be discontinued. However, the plan was altered later to include either Aqueduct or Jamaica, one of which also would be vastly improved and modernized. Bills to that effect — authorizing the formation of a non-profit organization, then called the Greater New York Racing Association, Inc., by the Jockey Club — were was held at Albany on March 25, at which introduced in the legislature on February 22, 1955, just before the deadline for legislation this year. A hearing on the meaures the sponsors and opponents of the plan, notably Cyrus S. Jullien, president ofc Aque-duct, and James Butler, Aqueduct stockholder, in the latter category, went over the bills in a bi-partisan session. The measures were finally passed by the legislature on the final day of its 1955 session on April 2, and were signed into law by Governor Harriman omMay 7.
