146 



Bird - Lore 



ALBERT WILLCOX, BENEFACTOR 



Albert Willcox, whose magnificent 

 bequest to this Association first placed it 

 on a permanent financial basis, was, in 

 many ways, a most interesting man. He 

 was born in New York City, on February 

 15, 1847, but spent most of his childhood 

 and youth on his father's farm on Staten 

 Island. At the age of 16 he went to work 

 for a drygoods firm in New York City. 

 His father had a small insurance business, 

 and the two joined later in it under the 

 firm-name of A. W. Willcox & Company, 

 and embarked in fire and marine insur- 

 ance brokerage. On the death of his 

 father, several years later, he became 

 associated with a younger cousin, Wil- 

 liam G. Willcox, under the firm-name of 

 Albert Willcox & Company; a partner- 

 ship which terminated only upon the death 

 of the senior member, twenty years later. 



Albert Willcox accumulated a consider- 

 able fortune, which he used liberally dur- 

 ing his lifetime and distributed generously 

 at his death. He was a large, strong man, 

 and succeeded in life by his indomitable 

 perseverance. 



He first became interested in the Audu- 

 bon movement by seeing some notice of 

 its work in a newspaper. He at once went 

 to see Mr. Dutcher, then Chairman of the 

 National Committee of Audubon Socie- 

 ties, and after inquiring thoroughly into 

 the work of the Committee, and especially 

 as to just how the funds were expended, 

 he offered to assist financially. 



I well remember when I first met him, 

 in the autumn of 1904. Mr. Willcox had 

 contributed money to the National Com- 

 mittee the year before," and had recently 

 stated to Mr. Dutcher that if some young 

 man should become connected with the 

 movement as financial agent, he would 

 personally pay the necessary salary and 

 expenses. I was living in North Carolina 

 at the time, and, summoned by a tele- 

 gram from Mr. Dutcher, came to New 

 York and had an interview with Mr. 

 Willcox. He impressed me as a very 

 frank, straight-forward business man, on 

 whose mind two things bore heavily, — 



one the need of educating the Negro in 

 the Southern States, and the other a 

 desire to see better means adopted for 

 preserving the wild-bird and animal life 

 of the country. 



At the termination of our interview, 

 we went to Mr. Dutcher's office, and Mr. 

 Willcox agreed to provide the Associa- 

 tion with $3,000 annually, in order that 

 I might give half of my time to advan- 

 cing its work. This he continued to do 

 until the time of his death, which occurred 

 on August 13, 1906, in his fifty-ninth year. 



He had always been intelligently inter- 

 ested in the achievements of the National 

 Association, which had in the meantime 

 become incorporated, but never attempted 

 to take any active part in the details of 

 the work. By his will, the Association 

 was made the beneficiary to the extent of 

 $331,072. The Board of Directors at 

 once made of this the beginning of a 

 permanent endowment-fund for the Asso- 

 ciation, and provided that only the inter- 

 est from the same should ever be used 

 for current expenses. Thus Mr. Willcox 

 enabled the directors to place on a per- 

 manent basis, for all time to come, the 

 work of the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies. 



Mr. Willcox was a man of great modesty, 

 and while he lived he would never permit 

 his name to be published in connection 

 with his contributions. Whenever he was 

 approached on the subject, he would 

 always declare most emphatically that 

 he did not want personal advertisement, 

 but that with all his heart he did desire 

 to see the wild life of the country pre- 

 served. He was interested not only ' in 

 bird-protection but in the preservation 

 of other wild animals as well, and it was 

 in response to his suggestion that the 

 scope of the Audubon work was broadened 

 to include wild animals as well as birds. 

 Mr. Willcox had the utmost faith in the 

 growth of the Audubon movement; and 

 he desired that his gifts be used chiefly 

 for securing additional support for the 

 Association's working-fund. — T. G. P. 



