Gustavus T. Kirby

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Gustavus Town Kirby (born January 22, 1874 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † February 27, 1954 in Bedford Hills , New York ) was an American track and field athlete , fencer , lawyer , inventor , art collector and sports official .

Life

After public and private schools in New York, he studied electrophysics (EE 1895) and law (LL.B. 1898) at Columbia University . He was admitted to the bar in 1898 and worked in various law firms. In 1905 he became prominent because he helped uncover a corruption scandal of the New York gas utilities, first as a lawyer, then as an employee of the prosecution. In 1912 he finished his practice as a lawyer and joined the American Art Association as vice president , which was founded by his father ( auctioneer and art dealer Thomas Ellis Kirby) in New York in 1893. In 1933 he established himself as a lawyer in his own law firm, which he ran until his death. In 1928 he began to experiment with light sources and invented and patented the Kirby-Lite , a uniform light source that was mainly used in hospitals, by photographers and for indirect lighting in exhibitions and museums. In 1931 he invented and patented the Kirby Camera Timer , a timekeeping system using light barriers, which enabled precise targeting, especially in athletics and horse racing . During and after the First World War he worked for $ 1 a year in the Ministry of Defense and was responsible for the supply and civil administration of Belgium . He was given the same task again during World War II . He was a member of the New York Republican Party .

Sporting commitment

Kirby was the captain of Columbia University's athletics and fencing teams (American college champion in 1896) and the organizer of the cycling team. In 1895 he was elected chairman of the college athletes of the east coast ( Inter-Collegiate Amateur Athletes of America ) and then remained a board member until 1936. In this capacity, he ensured the participation of American athletes in the First Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 . From that time until the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki he was a member of the US Olympic Committee and was its President from 1912 to 1924 and its Treasurer from 1932 to 1945. Thanks to his good relations as the person responsible for civil supply in Belgium, he played a key role in the success of the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp . From 1898 until his death he was a member of the board of the AAU (President 1912/13). He represented American interests in 1913 when the International Association of Athletics Federations was founded in Berlin. In the American dispute over participation in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , the Nazi Games , he stood firmly on the side of Avery Brundage - or as he put it, the "athlete" - and advocated the American participation of the American team the games. Since the usual large donations for sending the team did not materialize, Kirby was responsible as treasurer for the financing of the team - which he succeeded despite the predicted impossibility.

In New York City he organized youth competitive sports from 1903 to 1928 as Vice President of the Public School Athletic League and from 1928 to 1936 as President (as Honorary President until his death). From 1932 to 1955 he was a board member of the American Horse Shows Association (honorary president until his death). He was Treasurer from the founding of the National Recreation Association of America from 1908 to 1946 (Honorary Treasurer until his death). From 1932 until his death, he was Vice President and Director of the Park Association of New York . In addition to these activities, he found time for tennis , squash , golf , sailing and horse riding .

Honors

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gustavus Town Kirby. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography 45 (1962), 20f.
  2. ^ John A. Lucas: Architects of the Modernized American Olympic Committee, 1921–1928: Gustavus Town Kirby, Robert Means Thompson, and General Douglas MacArthur. Journal of Sport History 22 (1995), 1, 38-45.
  3. ^ Arnd Krüger : Fair Play for American Athletes. A study in anti-semitism. In: Canadian Journal of the History of Sport and Physical Education. 9: 1, pp. 42-57 (1978).
  4. ^ Arnd Krüger : The Olympic Games 1936 and the world opinion. Its importance in foreign policy, with particular reference to the USA. Sports science work, Vol. 7. Bartels & Wernitz, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-87039-925-2 .
  5. ^ Obituaries in: New York Times, February 29, 1956, p. 31: New York Herald Tribune, February 29, 1956, p. 12, Amateur Athlete, 27 (1956), 4, 12.
  6. ^ Gustavus T. Kirby: I Wonder Why? New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1954.
personal data
SURNAME Kirby, Gustavus T.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kirby, Gustavus Town (full name); Kirby, Gus (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer, athlete, and sports official
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1954
Place of death Bedford Hills , New York