Anson Goodyear

Anson Conger Goodyear (June 20, 1877—April 24, 1964) was an American manufacturer, businessman and philanthropist.

Biography
A. Conger Goodyear was born in Buffalo, New York on June 20, 1877. A member of a Western New York family prominent in business, he graduated from Yale University in 1899.

Goodyear became active in business, serving as chairman of the board of directors of Gaylord Container Corporation, director of Paramount Pictures, director of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and as an executive or director of several other corporations.

Active in the New York National Guard, Goodyear served as a Colonel in World War I and was the personal representative of the United States Secretary of War. Goodyear later rose to the rank of Major General in the New York Guard. During World War II he served in Hawaii as department commander for the American Red Cross. He also made observation tours in Europe and reported to the Secretary of War on conditions in the field and troop morale.

A noted philanthropist, Conger was an organizer of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and served as its first President and a member of the board of trustees. He was a close friend of actress and theater producer Katharine Cornell, also from Buffalo. Upon her death, she bequethed part of her foundation's assets to MoMA. Goodyear was also a director of the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts, an honorary governor of the New York Hospital, and a donor to Dartmouth College.

A friend of Ernest N. Harmon, Conger also made donations to Norwich University, and NU's Goodyear Hall is named for him.

Goodyear died in Old Westbury, New York on April 24, 1964. He is buried in Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery.

His Old Westbury home, the A. Conger Goodyear House, is on the National Register of Historic Places.