Founders: #143 Alfred Lee Loomis (the most interesting man you've never heard of)

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What I learned from reading Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II by James Conant. ---- [0:01] Few men of Loomis’ prominence and achievement have gone to greater lengths to foil history. [0:17] Independently wealthy, iconoclastic, and aloof, Loomis did not conform to the conventional measure of a great scientist. He was too complex to categorize—financier, philanthropist, society figure, physicist, inventor, dilettante—a contradiction in terms. [0:42] He rose to become one of the most powerful figures in banking in the 1920s. [4:42] The smile was a velvet glove covering his iron determination to get underway without any lost motion. [5:29] He would dedicate himself to overcoming Germany’s scientific advantage. [7:19] He had amassed a substantial fortune, which allowed him to act as a patron. [8:06] Loomis was a bit stiff, with the bearing of a four-star general in civilian clothes. He was strong and decisive. [10:15] He was enthusiastic about American know-how and was not inclined to sit idly by until the miliary finally determined it was time to take action—particularly if just catching up with the Germans prove

[00:00:00] Few men of Loomis' prominence and achievement have gone to greater lengths to foil history. He seemed to stand at the edge of important events, intimately involved and at the same time somehow overlooked. Yet here was a character who was at once familiar. Independently wealthy, iconoclastic, and aloof, Loomis did not conform to the conventional measure of a great scientist. He was too complex to categorize. Financier, philanthropist, society figure, physicist, inventor, amateur, dilettante, a contradiction in terms. Although he rose to become one of the most powerful figures in…

Founders: #143 Alfred Lee Loomis (the most interesting man you've never heard of)

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