Beekman Winthrop

Beekman Winthrop (September 18, 1874 – November 10, 1940) was a New York lawyer and Governor of Puerto Rico from 1904 to 1907. He was later an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.

The son of Robert Winthrop, Beekman came from a family of wealth and influence in New York (though he was born in Orange, New Jersey) and attended Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he received an undergraduate degree in 1897 and a law degree in 1900. A descendant of both John Winthrop, first Governor of Massachusetts, and John Winthrop, the Younger, first Governor of Connecticut, within four years after graduating he became first a personal secretary to (future President) William Howard Taft while he was Governor-General of the Philippines, and later was appointed as a judge in the Court of First Instance in the Philippines. He was known to be a personal friend of Theodore Roosevelt and was appointed by him in 1904 as Governor of Puerto Rico, at the age of only 28, shortly after marrying Melza Riggs Wood (1870-1928), four years his senior, who became First Lady of Puerto Rico.

Winthrop took office as governor on July 4, 1904, and served until April 17, 1907. On his inauguration, he promised improvements to the educational system of Puerto Rico. Winthrop was a strong proponent of bringing citizenship and locally elected officials to Puerto Rico.

In 1907, Winthrop was appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1909, he was made Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President Taft, a post he retained (with time as Acting Secretary) until 1913, when he was succeeded by a young New Yorker, Franklin D. Roosevelt..

Following his public life, he was a director of National City Bank. He resigned from that position in 1916. He subsequently worked as a director of Robert Winthrop and Co.