Robert Wilson Goelet

Robert Wilson Goelet (January 9, 1880 – February 6, 1966)

Early life Goelet was born in 1880. He was the son of Mary Wilson Goelet (1855–1929), a leader of New York and Newport society, and Ogden Goelet (1846–1897), a prominent heir and landlord in New York City who was the great-grandson of Peter Goelet, who begat the Goelet wealth by becoming one of the largest landowners in New York, which reportedly was 55 acres "stretching along the East side from Union Square to 48th Street." Through his sister, he was the maternal uncle of George Innes-Ker, 9th Duke of Roxburghe (1913–1974).

Through his mother, he was a nephew of Richard Thornton Wilson, Jr., Marshall Orme Wilson, Belle Wilson (the wife of British Ambassador Sir Michael Henry Herbert), and Grace Wilson (the wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt III). Through his father, he was a nephew of Robert Goelet, and a first cousin of Robert Walton Goelet.

Goelet attended Harvard University, graduating in 1902, tore down and commissioned Victor L.S. Hafner to design 608 Fifth Avenue, which stands to this day. to the United Nations as their headquarters. They did not accept the donation and instead, Ochre Court was donated to the Sisters of Mercy for the formation of Salve Regina College, the first Catholic women's college in the state of Rhode Island.

Military service During World War I, Goelet was a captain in the infantry in France, first with the 77th Division and later with the 82nd Division. For his service, he received the Silver Star for "gallantry" at the Battle of Meuse-Argonne. in Philadelphia with Alice Roosevelt as one of her bridesmaids. She was the daughter of Henry Whelan Jr., a prominent banker from Philadelphia, and the sister of Laura Whelan, who was married to Craig Biddle (brother of Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle). Before their divorce in 1914 (she later remarried to the artist Henry Clews Jr. and moved to the Chateau de la Napoule in France ), they were the parents of two sons:

Ogden Goelet (1907–1969), who married five times, the first being to Florence Enid Connfelt (1912–1992) in 1933. They divorced in 1938, and later that year, he married Maria Virginia Zimbalist (1915–1981), the daughter of singer Alma Gluck and violinist Efrem Zimbalist. They divorced in March 1941, and in April 1941, he married Mimi Nicholson Browne (1922), whom he also divorced. He later married for the fifth time to Sarah Sherborne Haigh (1908–1989) in 1963, remaining married until his death in 1969. Peter Goelet (1911–1986) a close friend of Goelet. The marriage reportedly infuriated his mother, who refused to receive his wife, and she cut him off from his share in her personal fortune, closed her New York home, her Newport home, and went to England to live. They eventually won over his mother four years later after the birth of a son,

Robert Wilson Goelet, Jr. (1921–1989), a film producer who first married Jane Potter Monroe in 1942. They divorced, and in 1949, he remarried to Lynn Merrick. After their marriage, his mother disinherited him. After a "stormy" marriage, they divorced in 1956.

On September 24, 1925, he married for the third time to Roberta Willard (1891–1949), the daughter of Col. Joseph Willard of Newport. Roberta had reportedly been voted "the prettiest debutante there in 1916." Both of their mothers were ill and could not attend the wedding, with her mother dying a month later, and his mother, a few years later in 1929. who married (and later divorced) James Eliot Cross in 1949. She later married Harold C. King.

Following his donation of Ochre Court in 1947, he purchased a home known as Champ Soleil, designed by Polhemus & Coffin and located at 601 Bellevue Avenue in Newport. He served on the boards of Bailey's Beach and the Newport Country Club, both of which were co-founded by his uncle, and which he was one of the largest shareholders. In New York, he was a member of the Knickerbocker Club, the Harvard Club, Turf Club, the St. Nicholas Society, the Piping Rock Club, and the Tuxedo Club. His funeral was held at St. Thomas’s and he was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. He was worth an estimated $50,000,000 (equivalent to approximately $ in dollars) at the time of his death. In October 1966, Goelet's collection of 18th century French furniture, porcelain, and other valuable objects from his New York and Newport homes were auctioned off by Parke-Bernet in New York.

Descendants Through his eldest son Ogden, he was the grandfather of Ogden Goelet Jr. and Enid Goelet (1934–2005), who married Ranald Trask McNeil (1933–2013),