MEYER, EUGENE

MEYER, EUGENE (1875–1959), U.S. banker, government official, and newspaper editor and publisher. Born in California, he formed the banking firm of Eugene Meyer, Jr., and Co. in 1901. For 16 years he played a leading role in developing oil, copper, and automotive industries. During World War I he entered government service as an adviser on nonferrous metals to the War Industries Board. In 1918 he was named managing director of the War Finance Corporation, and under President Hoover he served as governor of the Federal Reserve Board and organized the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932). He was also the first chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. In 1933, he bought the then moribund Washington Post at a public auction, pumped new life into it, absorbed the Washington Times-Herald, and raised the Washington Post daily circulation to 400,000. After World War II, Meyer accepted an appointment by President Truman to become first president of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and continued to serve on various commissions under President Eisenhower. The Washington Post Company, owner also of Newsweek magazine and a number of radio stations, was later headed by Meyer's daughter, katherine graham . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Current Biography, 20 (Oct. 1959), 30. (Irving Rosenthal)