Commodore Vanderbilt -- Rule maker

Introduction by the Blog Author
Those who inherit wealth have the frequently deserved reputation for being playboys or wastrels or parasites. But there are exceptions, and Harold S. Vanderbilt was one of the most magnificent of exceptions. His love of sailing and the family boats made him a natural racing sailboat captain. His splendid education made him an ingenious rule-maker both for sailing regattas and for distinctly modernizing the card game of bridge. He became a railroad executive, a college president and Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, thus he was frequently called "Commodore Vanderbilt." Here’s a biography from Wikipedia:

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Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (6 July 1884 – 4 July 1970) was an American railroad executive, a champion yachtsman, a champion bridge player and a member of the Vanderbilt family.

Background
He was born in Oakdale, New York, the third child and second son of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith. To family and friends he was known as "Mike". His siblings were William Kissam Vanderbilt II and Consuelo Vanderbilt. As the great-grandson of the shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, he was born to great wealth and privilege: as a child he was raised in Vanderbilt mansions, travelled frequently to Europe, and sailed the world on yachts owned by his father.

Professional Life
He was educated by tutors and at private schools including St. Mark’s Schol, Harvard College (AB 1907), and Harvard Law School, which he attended from 1907 to 1910 but did not receive a degree. He then joined the New York Central Railroad, the centerpiece of his family's vast railway empire, of which his father was president.

In March 1917 Vanderbilt was commissioned a lieutenant (junior grade) in the United States Naval Reserve. He was called to active duty on 9 April 1917 and was assigned as commanding officer of the scout patrol boat USS Patrol No. 8 (SP-56) which operated out of Newport, Rhode Island. On 20 July he was reassigned to command the Block Island, Rhode Island anti-submarine sector and on 17 November the New London, Connecticut anti-submarine sector. On 17 July 1918 he was reassigned to the US Navy forces in Europe and reported to Submarine Chaser Detachment 3 at Queenstown, Ireland in August. He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 September and served with Detachment 3 until the unit was disbanded on 25 November 1918. He was placed on inactive duty on 30 December 1918.

On his father's death in 1920, Harold inherited a fortune that included the Idle Hour country estate at Oakdale, New York, (on Long Island) and equity in the following railway companies:

• Detroit, Toledo and Milwaukee Railroad
• Genesee Falls Railway
• Kanawha and Michigan Railway
• Kanawha and West Virginia Railroad
• New Yorsey Junction Railroad
• New York Central Railroad
• NewYork and Harlem Railroad
• Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad

Following the death of his brother William in 1944, he remained the only active representative of the Vanderbilt family involved with the New York Central Railroad. He served as a director and member of the executive committee until 1954 when the New York Central subjected to a hostile takeover by business tycoon Robert R. Young.

Sailing Career and The America’s Cup
As a boy, Harold Vanderbilt spent part of his summers at the Vanderbilt mansions, the Idle Hour estate in Long Island, New York on the banks of the Connetquot River, Marble House at Newport, Rhode Island, and later at Belcourt (the Newport mansion of his stepfather, Oliver Belmont). As an adult, he pursued his interest in yachting, winning six "King's Cups" and five Astor Cups at regattas between 1922 and 1938. In 1925, he built his own luxurious vacation home at Palm Beach, Florida that he called "El Solano." In addition to being his vacation home, El Solano is also notable for being purchased by former Beatle John Lennon shortly before his murder in 1980.

In 1930, Harold achieved the pinnacle of yacht racing success by defending the America’s Cup in the J-class yacht Enterprise. His victory put him on the cover of the September 15, 1930, issue of Time magazine. In 1934 Harold faced a dangerous challenger in Endeavour, as the British boat won the first two races. However, Vanderbilt came back in his yacht Rainbow to win three races in a row and defend the Cup. In 1937 Harold defended the Cup a third time in Ranger, the last of the J-class yachts to defend the Cup. They were posthumously elected to the America’s Cup Hall of Fame in 1993. Later in life Vanderbilt would become Commodore of the New York Yacht Club and would be intimately involved in many successful America's Cup defenses.

In the fall of 1935, Harold began a study of the yacht racing rules with three friends: Philip J. Roosevelt, President of the North American Yacht Racing Union (predecessor to US SAILING); Van Merle-Smith, President of the Yacht Racing Association of Long Island Sound; and Henry H. Anderson. "The four men began by attempting to take the right-of-way rules as they were and amending them. After about six weeks of intensive effort, they finally concluded that they were getting exactly nowhere. It was the basic principles, not the details, that were causing the problems. They would have to start from scratch."

In 1936, Vanderbilt, with assistance from the other three had developed an alternative set of rules, printed them, and mailed a copy to every yachtsman that Harold knew personally or by name in both the United States and England. These were virtually ignored, but a second edition in 1938 was improved, as were following versions. Vanderbilt continued to work with the various committees of the North American Yacht Racing Union until finally in 1960 the International Yacht Racing Union (predecessor to the International Sailing Federation or ISAF) adopted the rules that Vanderbilt and the Americans had developed over the previous quarter century.

Vanderbilt University　
Harold Vanderbilt had a keen interest in the success of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 1873 through the financial sponsorship of his great-grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt. A longtime member of the university's Board of Trust, he served as its president between 1955 and 1968. He helped guide the institution through a time in history when racial integration of the student body was a divisive and explosive issue. In 1962 Vanderbilt attended one of the first meetings of the Vanderbilt Sailing Club and provided funding for the club to purchase its first fleet of dinghies, Penguins. The university annually offers several scholarships named in his honor, and on the grounds in front of Buttrick Hall, a statue was erected in his honor.

Bridge
Vanderbilt was also a card game enthusiast who, in 1925, originated changes to the scoring system by which the game of contract bridge, supplanted auction bridge in popularity. Three years later, he endowed the Vanderbilt Trophy awarded to the winners of the national team-of-four championship. In 1932 and again in 1940 he was part of a team that won his own trophy
; it remains one of the most prized in the game.
Vanderbilt invented the first forcing club bidding system which has dominated world championship play ever since;
he penned several books on the subject of bridge, most notably "The Vanderbilt Club."
In 1969, the World Bridge Federation (WBF) made Vanderbilt its first honorary member. When the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1964, Vanderbilt was one of the first three persons elected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Stirling_Vanderbilt