George Crocker

George Crocker (February 10, 1856 – December 4, 1909) was an American businessman and a member of the wealthy Crocker family. A member of Tuller & Co., he was also a director of several corporations,

Early life He was born on February 10, 1856, in Sacramento, California, the second of four children of the railway magnate Charles Crocker. His three siblings were William Henry Crocker, Harriet Crocker Alexander, and Charles Frederick Crocker.

Following his father's death in 1888, an estate was left of $30,000,000. After he returned from Europe on his honeymoon, his brothers turned over $6 million to him.

Following his 1906 expedition that failed to reach the North Pole, Robert E. Peary reported in his book that he had sighted distant land from the heights of the northwestern coast of Ellesmere Island. He named it Crocker Land after San Francisco banker George Crocker, one of his financial backers. It is now known that Peary's report was a hoax, as he wrote in his diary at the time that no land was visible. At the time, an expedition (Crocker Land Expedition) was organized, and ultimately failed. In 1909, Crocker was valued between $10 million to $20 million. The estimated cost was $2,000,000 ($ million when adjusted for current inflation). Until June 1906, George Crocker worked on building the small church dedicated to his wife. He had a second operation Darlington was sold to the banker Emerson McMillin, who lived in the estate until his death in 1922. The George Crocker Special Research Fund at Columbia University for cancer research received the monies earned from the sale of the houses.