Robert Garrett

Robert S. Garrett (May 24, 1875 – April 25, 1961) was an American athlete, as well as investment banker and philanthropist in Baltimore, Maryland and financier of several important archeological excavations. Garrett was the first modern Olympic champion in discus throw as well as shot put. Early and family life Robert S. Garrett was born in then rural/suburban Baltimore County, Maryland (which surrounds the City of Baltimore) into one of Maryland's most prominent and wealthy families. For four generations, the Garretts ran Robert Garrett and Sons, a shipping and financing, investment banking firm founded by his Irish immigrant great-grandfather, also named Robert Garrett, in 1819. His grandfather John Work Garrett (1820-1884) had led the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (the first passenger railroad line established in America, 1827-1828), for nearly three decades (1858-1884), including supporting the Union during the American Civil War (1861-1865), making it by the middle of the 19th century as one of the most important lines in the nation, and also became an important philanthropist in Baltimore. His father was Thomas Harrison Garrett (1849-1888), and his mother the former Alice Dickerson Whitridge; his elder brother John Work Garrett (1872-1942) became a distinguished American diplomat for the United States Department of State. Like his elder brother, Robert S. Garrett studied at Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey, where he excelled in track and field athletics as an undergraduate, and captained Princeton's track team in both his junior and senior years. Garrett married Katharine Barker Johnson (1885-1961), who survived him by less than a year. They had two sons and three daughters by 1920. Although their first daughter and son both died as infants, and their youngest son, a United States Army Air Corps pilot Lt. John Work Garrett (1924–1944) died during World War II (1939/1941-1945), and sons Harrison Garrett (1911–1994) and Johnson Garrett (1912–1979) survived their parents, as did daughters Katharine Garrett Bainbridge (1914–1999) and Ella Brock Johnson Garrett Brigham (1917–2006).