Malcolm Chace

Malcolm Greene Chace (March 12, 1875 – July 16, 1955) was an American financier and textile industrialist who was instrumental in bringing electric power to New England. He was a pioneer of the sport of ice hockey in the United States, and was Yale University's first hockey captain. He was also an amateur tennis player whose highest ranking was U.S. No. 3 in 1895. Personal life Chace was born March 12, 1875, in Central Falls, Rhode Island into the illustrious Chace family. Malcolm's great-grandfather Oliver Chace was a textile mill owner, whose company later became Berkshire Hathaway. His grandmother was anti-slavery activist Elizabeth Buffum Chace. His parents were Brown University chancellor Arnold Buffum Chace and Eliza Greene Chace. His son, Malcolm Greene Chace, Jr. and grandson Malcolm Greene Chace III also became directors of Berkshire Hathaway. Chace briefly attended Brown University, but transferred to Yale and graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1896, attaining some fame as a tennis player at both schools. In 1914, he purchased Point Gammon Light on Great Island in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, which had previously been owned by the renowned ornithologist Charles Barney Cory. By 1925, Chace owned the entire island, the majority of which has remained in the Chace family to the present day. Chace lived for some time in Providence, Rhode Island, but spent the last 10 years of his life at 60 Sutton Place in New York City and at his summer home in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Chace's first wife Elizabeth Edwards died in 1947. His second wife Kathleen Dunster (incorrectly reported in his New York Times obituary as "Kathleen Dunbar"), outlived him. He had two sons (Malcolm Greene Chace, Jr. and Arnold B. Chace III) and three daughters.