Richard Lounsbery
Richard Lounsbery was an American businessman. The Richard Lounsbery Foundation was set up with his family's wealth.
Early life
Lounsbery was born in New York City in 1882 into an affluent family. His father, Richard P. Lounsbery, hailed mostly from an English family that immigrated to America during colonial times. His mother, Edith Hunter Haggin, had Turkish ancestry through her great-grandfather, Ibrahim Ben Ali, a doctor who migrated from Turkey to the United States after the Russo-Turkish war. The Lounsbery family amassed their wealth from the extensive business ventures of Edith's father, James Ben Ali Haggin, who helped to strengthen the United States' position in the copper industry, helped develop farmland in California, and implemented legislation governing the state's water rights.Lounsbery attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated from Harvard College in 1906. He then joined the Haggin family business and extended activities into new areas such as importing silk from Japan. Upon his father's death in 1912, Lounsbery decided to change fields and joined the investment firm of J. B. Harris and Company.
After serving in France as an Army lieutenant during World War I, Lounsbery decided to stay there to study art.
Personal life
Lounsbery married Vera Victoroff, a Russian refugee in Paris, in 1928.He was the cousin of the painter Ben Ali Haggin.