George A. Spater

George Alexander Spater (May 3, 1909 – June 14, 1984) was chairman of American Airlines from 1968 until 1973, when he became the first of several corporate executives to voluntarily admit having made illegal corporate contributions to President Nixon's re-election campaign. After retiring from American Airlines, he wrote well-regarded biographies of Virginia Woolf and William Cobbett.

Biography

Early life Spater was born on May 3, 1909, in Detroit, Michigan,

In 1935, he was admitted to the bar. He spent most of his law career working in aviation advising in particular Eastern Airlines and Transcontinental Air Transport (forerunner of TWA). He worked at Chadbourne, Parke, Whiteside and Wolff in New York and was a partner there in 1942–1958.

Writing and death Spater lost his law license and his position with American Airlines because of his role in the illegal campaign contributions. He subsequently moved to England, where he wrote biographies about William Cobbett and Virginia Woolf. Reviewing the Cobbett biography in The New York Times in 1982, William Safire wrote that "Mr. Spater's much-needed new biography of the first media giant is thorough, solid, usefully illustrated and satisfyingly annotated, a scholarly labor of love that adds significantly to the literature about a historic figure too long overlooked by Americans."

Spater died at his home in White River Junction, Vermont, on June 14, 1984, aged 75.