Frederick W. Whitridge

We turn from this brilliant astronomer and traveler [Percival Lowell] to an equally brilliant lawyer, publicist, and city railroad receiver and president, Frederick Wallingford Whitridge. Graduating from Amherst in 1874, he began the practice of law in New York City, quickly interesting himself also in politics and civil service reform. He was one of the original “young scratchers,” who were the fathers of all us “mugwumps.” For a number of years he was on the Executive Committee of the Civil Service Reform Association, doing such keen and valiant service as he always did in whatever matter he undertook. He filled out his time by lecturing on administrative and constitutional law in Columbia University, and his caustic pen produced many articles in the Reviews. It would seem as if all this was preparation for his notably brilliant receivership of the insolvent Third Avenue Railroad. Judge Lacombe appointed him in 1908; and within five years, by pluck and native wit and energy, Whitridge had set the bedraggled railroad property upon its feet, once more a going and paying concern, and had restored it to its stockholders, who responded by electing him president; and he became president or director of other street railroad properties. A running fight, maintained with the Public Service Commission on the one hand, and with the Unions on the other, made part of his thrifty and successful rehabilitation and management of these important car systems. The telling wit of his letters to the Commission will not soon be forgotten, nor the picturesque charm of his pungent personality, which delighted his admiring friends.

Henry Osborn Taylor
1917 Century Association Yearbook