Robert Livingston Ireland Jr.

Robert Livingston Ireland Jr. (February 1, 1895 – April 21, 1981), nicknamed "Liv", was an American businessman, philanthropist, plantation owner, quail hunter, and yachtsman from Cleveland, Ohio.

Robert Livingston Ireland Jr.
Born(1895-02-01)February 1, 1895
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
DiedApril 21, 1981(1981-04-21) (aged 86)
EducationUniversity School
The Taft School
Asheville School
Alma materPhillips Andover Academy
Yale University
Spouse(s)
Margaret Allen
​
​
(m. 1918; died 1961)​

Louise Ireland Grimes
​
​
(m. 1967; his death 1981)​
Children4
Parent(s)Robert Livingston Ireland
Kate Benedict Harvey
RelativesHoward Melville Hanna (grandfather)

Early life

Ireland was born in Cleveland, Ohio on February 1, 1895. He was the son of Robert Livingston Ireland Sr. (1867–1928), a prominent Cleveland businessman,[1] and Kate Benedict Ireland (1871–1936), who married in 1894.[2] His sister, Elisabeth Ireland (known as "Miss Pansy"), was married to Parker Barrington Poe and inherited Pebble Hill Plantation, their maternal grandfather's estate in Thomasville, Georgia.[3] His parents divorced in 1918; his father remarried to Esther Wood in 1920,[4] and his mother remarried to Perry Williams Harvey.[5]

His paternal grandfather was prominent lawyer, John Busteed Ireland, a grandson of Jonathan Lawrence of the Continental Army and of William Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.[6] His paternal grandmother was Adelia Duane (née Pell) Ireland, the daughter of Maria Louisa (née Brinckerhoff) Pell and Robert Livingston Pell, a descendant of Robert Livingston the Elder, 1st Lord of Livingston Manor,[7] and Thomas Pell, 1st Lord of the Pelham Manor.[2]

He attended University School in Shaker Heights, Ohio and went on to prepare for college at The Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut. He graduated from Asheville School in North Carolina in 1914. From 1914-1915 he also attended Phillips Andover Academy followed by studying mining engineering at Yale University. He left Yale during World War I and enlisted in the Naval Reserve Flying Corps.[8]

Career

He had a long career with the M.A. Hanna Company founded by his maternal grandfather, Howard Melville Hanna, a brother of Marcus Alonzo Hanna, a U.S. senator from Ohio. He also had a long run with Consolidation Coal Company. From 1920 to 1924, he worked for Susquehanna Collieries Company, a subsidiary of Hanna Coal Company in Pennsylvania. In 1924, he returned to Cleveland and became an assistant to the general manager of SCC. He worked his way up in Hanna Coal and became manager in 1929 followed by president in 1931. When Consolidation Coal Company purchased Hanna Coal, he became chairman of the executive committee followed by vice-chairman of the board of directors. He retired in 1966.[8]

Philanthropy

He was an active civic leader and active in politics serving on the board of directors of several organizations. He financially supported all the arts but disliked opera and classical music. His first wife and daughter Louise were great Opera enthusiasts. They promoted and supported the Metropolitan Opera's annual tour visit to Cleveland where Liv played to role of announcer bouncer at a high society reception before the opera. A few minutes prior to the start of the opera he would proceed through the reception with a loud noise maker telling everyone to head up to the auditorium. When the group had departed, he would retreat to a small office and work. He was a prominent figure in the local and state Republican Party and through his friend, Governor Jim Rhodes, funding was approved for The Ireland Cancer Center at University Hospitals in his memory.[9]

Active in civic affairs, he served as president of the board of trustees of the Hawken School, Cleveland, and as a trustee of St. Timothy's School in Baltimore, Maryland. He was a member of the finance committee of the Day Nursery Association, chairman of the investment committee of the Visiting Nurse Association, and a member of the advisory committee on investments of the Benjamin Rose Institute, all in Cleveland. Additionally, he was a member of the board of governors of Western Reserve University, a trustee of the Cleveland Zoological Society, and chairman of the finance committee of the University Hospitals in Cleveland.

Plantations and sailing

He was an avid sportsman and with close friend David S. Ingalls (1899-1985) and the two co-owned two quail hunting plantations, Ring Oak Plantation and Foshalee Plantation in Leon County, Florida north of Tallahassee. They later divided the plantations with Ireland taking full ownership of Foshallee.[10]

He was a sailing enthusiast with a series of boats named Pandora (I - IV) in which he cruised the east coast of the United States and the Bahamas from his residence in Pemaquid Harbor, Maine, and Nassau Harbor Club, in Nassau, Bahamas. He was a member of the Cruising Club of America and competed in the Bermuda Race many times. While in the Bahamas his local guide was Vivian Alvin (Old Pot) Pinder of Spanish Wells, reputed to be the greatest spear fisherman in the Bahamas.

Personal life

On February 9, 1918, he was married to Margaret "Peg" Allen (1894–1961). Peg had been born in Chicago, raised in New York, and graduated from Brearley School. She helped organize the Western Reserve Women's Republican Club of Cuyahoga County, Ohio and from 1953 to 1957, she chaired the Cuyahoga County Republican Party's Women's Committee, and in 1952 and 1956, she was an alternate delegate to those Republican National Conventions. Together, Liv and Peg were the parents of four children:[11]

Margaret died October 22, 1961. He later remarried to Mrs. Louise Davis (née Ireland) Grimes in 1967. They had no children. He died on April 21, 1981, and is buried in Lake View Cemetery.[8]

References
  1. "IRELAND, CAPITALIST, IS FOUND SHOT DEAD; Wife Finds Body in Hotel With Four Bullet Wounds--Medical Examiner Calls It Suicide. POLICE CONTINUE INQUIRY Puzzled by Lack of Farewell Notes, but Hear Coal Operator Was Ill More Than a Year" (PDF). The New York Times. 18 February 1928. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  2. Hartford, William J. (1900). The Successful American. New York: Press Biographical Company. p. 402. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  3. Gleason, David King (1987). Antebellum Homes of Georgia. LSU Press. ISBN 9780807114322. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  4. "BRIDAL PAIR TO FLY FROM FLORIDA HERE; Robert L. Ireland, Cleveland Capitalist, Weds Miss Mary E. Wood at Palm Beach. ROMANCE OF FEW WEEKS Bridegroom, 43, Became a Grandfather Soon Before His Wedding--Bride a New York Girl" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 April 1920. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  5. Swayne, Noah Haynes (1918). Twenty-five Year Record, Class of Ninety-three, Yale College: Including an Account of the Anniversary Reunion in June, 1918. Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company. pp. 237-238. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  6. Davis, Howland; Clermont, Friends of (1995). A Livingston Genealogical Register. Kinship. p. 109. ISBN 9781560121367. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  7. Livingston, Edwin Brockholst (1910). The Livingstons of Livingston Manor: Being the History of that Branch of the Scottish House of Callendar which Settled in the English Province of New York During the Reign of Charles the Second; and Also Including an Account of Robert Livingston of Albany, "The Nephew," a Settler in the Same Province and His Principal Descendants. Knickerbocker Press. p. 228. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  8. "IRELAND, ROBERT LIVINGSTON, JR". case.edu. Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  9. Case Western Reserve: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
  10. Paisley, Clifton, From Cotton To Quail: An Agricultural Chronicle of Leon County, Florida, 1860-1967, University of Florida Press, 1968. ISBN 978-0-8130-0718-2 pp. 91-92
  11. Yale Alumni Weekly. Yale University. 1918. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  12. Segall, Grant (20 March 2012). "Louise Ireland Humphrey led the Met Opera, Chagrin Valley hunts and more: news obituary". Cleveland.com. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  13. "Jacqueline Ireland, 65; Active in Civic Affairs". The New York Times. 11 July 1989. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  14. Gross, Michael (2006). 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building. Broadway Books. p. 347. ISBN 9780767917445. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  15. "Nancy Suzanne Roosevelt Fiancee of Thomas E. Ireland". The New York Times. 17 April 1977. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  16. "Nancy Ireland Is Bride Upstate". The New York Times. 1 July 1979. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  17. Robards, Terry (1 October 1970). "Blair & Co. Sued by Four Lenders". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  18. Segall, Grant (18 February 2011). "Kate Ireland was a civic leader in Cleveland and elsewhere". Cleveland.com. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
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