James A. Stillman
American businessman (1873-1944)

James Alexander Stillman (August 18, 1873 – January 13, 1944) was a president of National City Bank.
Biography
James Alexander Stillman was born on August 18, 1873, in New York City to James Jewett Stillman (1850–1918) and Sarah Elizabeth Rumrill. His paternal grandfather was Charles Stillman (1810–1875), the founder of Brownsville, Texas. He graduated Harvard University in 1896.
Career
In 1918, his father who was chairman of National City Bank of New York died and the younger Stillman engaged in a fight with Frank A. Vanderlip to control the company. Eventually in 1919, Vanderlip quit and Stillman became chairman. His father's estate was estimated at $45,000,000. While he was chairman, he urged temperate speech and urged people not to do or say anything that causes excitement while discussing general conditions of the country.
He served as chairman for three years until personal issues relating to a divorce with his wife caused him to resign. In 1921, Stillman sold 5,000 city lots in Brownsville, Texas that were part of his grandfather's estate, with estimates putting their value upwards of $1,500,000.
The public source identifies “James A. Stillman” as american businessman (1873-1944). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around James, Stillman and American.
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This entry incorporates text from “James A. Stillman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.