Founder of Hartford Faience Co. dies suddenly

C. E. Whitney Dies Suddenly At Age Of 63

Prominent Manufacturer Succumbs to Heart Attack at Home on Kenyon Street

Executive Officer Of 5 Companies

Leader in Open Shop and County Organization – Widely Known to Auto Industry

Clarence E. Whitney, 63, one of Hartford’s most prominent manufacturers, died suddenly at his home, 266 Kenyon Street, Sunday morning shortly before noon. Sudden heart failure associated with coronary occlusion was given as the cause of death. The funeral will be held Wednesday at 2:30 p. m. at the home of his sister, Miss Nettie L. Whitney, of 568 Farmington Avenue. Burial will be in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Widely known throughout the automobile industry which used most of his products, Mr. Whitney was president of The Whitney Manufacturing Company, The Hartford Faience Company and the Liberty Street Realty Company and was secretary-treasurer of The Hanson-Whitney Company and The Hanson Tap and Gauge Company. He was instrumental in founding all these companies. He was also a director of the Skayef Ball Bearing Company, until recently in this city.

Graduate of M. I. T.

Mr. Whitney was born in Hartford on November 26, 1869, a son of Amos Whitney, one of Hartford’s pioneer manufacturers and a founder of The Pratt & Whitney Company. He was educated in the public schools of this city, graduating from the West Middle School, and then entered a private school before matriculating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from which he was graduated in 1891. He then went to Germany to study industrial methods in that country. On his return, approximately a year after his graduation, he entered the employ of The Pratt & Whitney Company.

In August of 1894 he left Pratt & Whitney to become one of the founders of The Hartford Faience Company, and two years later founded The Whitney Manufacturing Company. With other prominent Hartford manufacturers he organized the Liberty Street Realty Company, formed to construct moderate prices homes for workmen and dispose of them on terms which would permit the individual of small income to own a home, in June of 1910, he was one of the founders of The Hanson-Whitney Company in 1919 and a year later was one of the founders of The Hanson Tap and Gauge Company.

Open Shop Leader

For many years he was a director and one of the strongest supporters of the National Association of Manufacturers, and in 1904 he helped to organize The Manufacturers’ Association of Hartford County, of which he has since been a member of the board of managers. Several years later he assisted in forming The Employer’s Association of Hartford County and the Open Shop Building Trades Exchange.

Mr. Whitney was the prime mover in the organization of the Open Shop Conference of Connecticut, and for the first two years of its existence was the principal financial supporter of the organization. Possessing a strong conviction that the open shop movement was the best protection for the independent workingman, Mr. Whitney became nationally known in the work and gave freely of his time and financial support not only in this state but elsewhere to further the movement. During the war, in the face of opposition from certain elements in labor, he insisted that factories engage in munitions manufacture should be operated 24 hours a day, and his own plant was operated upon this basis.

Aided Riverside Trust.

Recently Mr. Whitney was extremely active in the reorganization of the Riverside Trust Company being the first to subscribe new capital for the institution, and also working actively with the committee in charge of reorganization in the period between the closing of the institution and its reopening.

In 1920 and 1921 Mr. Whitney, who had for some time been interested in the Newington Home for Crippled Children, undertook a campaign to obtain new buildings for the home and personally collected a large sum of money for this purpose. In addition he was active in persuading the state government to forward the plan. For many years he was a member of the board of directors of the institution. He was intensely interested in various civic projects in Hartford.

Member of Several Clubs.

Mr. Whitney leaves his wife, Mrs. Nellie Hurlbert Whitney; two sons Winthrop H Whitney of Los Angeles, Cal., and Lawrence Amos Whitney of this city; a sister, Miss Nellie L. Whitney of this city and six grandchildren.

He was a member of the Question Club, an organization of limited membership among nationally known manufacturers, the Hartford Chamber of Commerce, Farmington Country Club, Hartford Golf Club, Wampanoag Country Club, the Hartford Club and the Engineers Club of New York. He was a member of Hartford Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of the Sons of the American Revolution, Theta Delta Chi fraternity and the alumni association of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Winthrop H. Whitney is flying east to attend the funeral. He is expected to arrive Tuesday afternoon.