Cornelius Vander Starr
Encyclopedia
Cornelius Van der Starr also known as Neil Starr or CV Starr (October 15, 1892 – December 20, 1968) was an American businessman and Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...

 operative who founded the American International Group
American International Group
American International Group, Inc. or AIG is an American multinational insurance corporation. Its corporate headquarters is located in the American International Building in New York City. The British headquarters office is on Fenchurch Street in London, continental Europe operations are based in...

 (AIG) insurance corporation and a major philanthropic foundation.

Early life

Starr was born in Fort Bragg, California
Fort Bragg, California
Fort Bragg is a city located in coastal Mendocino County, California along State Route 1, the major north-south highway along the Pacific Coast. Fort Bragg is located west of Willits, at an elevation of 85 feet...

 with the name Neil Starr, where his Dutch father was a railroad engineer. He began his first business, selling ice cream, at the age of nineteen, and became a student at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

. In 1910, he moved to San Francisco, where he sold auto insurance by day while studying for the California bar exam, which he passed in 1913.

He joined the U.S. Army in 1918 but was not sent overseas. Instead, he joined the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland...

 as a clerk in Yokohama, Japan. Later that year, he traveled to Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 where he worked for several insurance businesses.

AIG

In 1919 he founded AIG in Shanghai, then known as "American Asiatic Underwriters" (later "American International Underwriters"). His first employee, and office boy, was Sir Edwin Manton
Edwin Manton
Sir Edwin Alfred Grenville Manton was a driving force in the creation of the American International Group , a collector of paintings by John Constable and his contemporaries, and a generous benefactor to the arts, the church and medicine.Knighted in 1994 for charitable services to the Tate Gallery...

, who eventually became Chairman of A.I.U. and Executive Vice-President of AIG. Eventually, he hired Maurice "Hank" Greenberg's
Maurice R. Greenberg
Maurice Raymond "Hank" Greenberg is an American business executive and former chairman and CEO of American International Group , which was the world's 18th largest public company and its largest insurance and financial services corporation.He is currently chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co., Inc....

 father as his driver, saw exceptional promise in the young man, paid for his education, and hired him as a trainee.
It has been reported that he worked for the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...

 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 while in China. One interesting point is that, after the war, he hired O.S.S. captain Duncan Lee, a lawyer, who was the long-term General Counsel of AIG.
AIG left China in early 1949, as Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

 led the advance of the Communist People's Liberation Army
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...

 on Shanghai, and Starr moved the company headquarters to its current home in New York City. AIG was once the world's largest insurance company, and the sixth-largest company in the United States according to the 2007 Forbes Global 2000
Forbes Global 2000
The Forbes Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world by Forbes magazine. The ranking is based on a mix of four metrics: sales, profit, assets and market value...

 list.

Legacy

In 1955 he founded the C. V. Starr Foundation
The Starr Foundation
The Starr Foundation was established in 1955 by Cornelius Vander Starr, founder of the American Insurance Group. Upon his death in 1968 his estate was passed on to the foundation...

, to which he left his residuary estate, after a special bequest in the eight figures and his house in Brewster to his niece, on his death in 1968.
The C. V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 was named for Starr in recognition of an endowment gift by the Starr Foundation in 1981. The C. V. Starr East Asian Library at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 was completed and dedicated in October 2007.
C.V. Starr Hall at Hofstra University
Hofstra University
Hofstra University is a private, nonsectarian institution of higher learning located in the Village of Hempstead, New York, United States, about east of New York City: less than an hour away by train or car...

 is named in his honor in recognition of his philanthropic work.
The C. V. Starr Community Center in Fort Bragg California is named for him. A double black diamond run at Stowe Mountain Resort is named for him.

Starr is the great-uncle of lawyer and former solicitor general Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....

, who was the Independent Counsel appointed to investigate the Whitewater controversy
Whitewater controversy
The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...

.

External links

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