Thomas DeWitt Cuyler

Thomas DeWitt Cuyler (September 28, 1854 – November 2, 1922) was an American lawyer who served as director of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the chairman of the Association of Railway Executives.

Early life Cuyler was born in Philadelphia on September 28, 1854. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Rev. Thomas DeWitt Jr., who was the pastor of the Collegiate Dutch Church in New York City for forty years. His younger brother, Cornelius C. Cuyler, a Princeton graduate and banker, was named for their paternal grandfather, Cornelius C. Cuyler, and his sister, Eleanor DeGraff Cuyler, was named for their paternal grandmother, Eleanor ( DeGraff) Cuyler.

His maternal great-grandparents were Thomas DeWitt and Elsie ( Hasbrouck) DeWitt, a member of the prominent Hasbrouck family. Thomas DeWitt Sr.'s sister, Mary, married James Clinton and had New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, making him a first cousin, twice removed of Thomas DeWitt Cuyler. His maternal aunt, Maria van Antwerp DeWitt, was married to banker and philanthropist Morris Ketchum Jesup. He was directly descended from Hendrick Cuyler, who came from Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 1664, settling in Albany, New York.

Personal life On May 3, 1881, Cuyler married Frances Lewis (1860–1941) in Philadelphia. For many years, she was a member of the board of the Orphan Society of Philadelphia and served as president. Frances Lewis Cuyler (1883–1930), who was named for her mother; she died unmarried in Trouville, France. Helen Scott Cuyler (1887–1978), who married Caspar Wistar Morris (1880–1961), a son of Dr. Caspar Morris, in 1910. Eleanor DeGraff Cuyler (1898–1976); married first Joseph Walker III (1892–1981) in 1917. They divorced and she married U.S. diplomat Robert Strausz-Hupé in 1938.

Cuyler died of apoplexy in his private rail car on November 2, 1922. In his will, he left his widow $250,000 to his wife and $100,000 to each of his daughters, with the remainder of his estate going to his widow. His widow died at her home on Pembroke Avenue in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in February 1941.

Legacy There is the Thomas DeWitt Cuyler professorship in Economics and a DeWitt Cuyler Athletic Field, both at Yale University.