Catherine Everit Macy Ladd, known as Kate Macy Ladd, was an American philanthropist who founded and endowed the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation in honor of her father.
Catherine Everit Macy Ladd (April 6, 1863 – August 27, 1945), known as Kate Macy Ladd, was an American philanthropist who founded and endowed the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation in honor of her father.
Biography
Kate was born in New York City, a descendant of Thomas and Sarah Macy, Massachusetts settlers in the late 1630s. She was a granddaughter of Captain Josiah Macy, originally of Nantucket, who founded a firm that became New York's first oil refinery in the 1860s (later sold to the Standard Oil Company).
Kate's father died in 1876 at only 39 years old, when Kate was still a teenager. Upon her father's death, she inherited an estimated $15 million. She was plagued by some disease or condition; she was described as "an invalid" since her early twenties.
At twenty years old, she married lawyer and yachtsman Walter Graeme Ladd (1857–1933) on December 5, 1883. Walter won several yachting prizes, including some with his schooner, the Etak ("Kate" spelled backwards).
