John C. Whitehead

  • Founding Chairman
  • 9/11 Memorial & Museum

John C. Whitehead was born in Evanston, Illinois, and died at the age of 92.

He graduated from Haverford College in 1943 and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Whitehead received his MBA from Harvard in 1947 and began at Goldman Sachs & Co. He became partner in 1956 and senior partner in 1976.

In 1985, Whitehead was asked by former President Ronald Reagan to become deputy secretary of state. He was sworn into office in July 1985 and served until January 1989.

He was the former chairman of such diverse organizations as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Harvard Board of Overseers, the International Rescue Committee, the United Nations Association, Haverford College, the Asia Society, and the Hungarian-American Enterprise Fund. He was chairman of the Boy Scouts of America/GNY.

In late 2001, he was appointed as chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the organization responsible for the rebuilding and revitalization of lower Manhattan. He served in that position until May 2006. He was also the founding chairman of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

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A man holds a boy as the two observe an object out of view in Foundation Hall. The two of them are framed by a piece of bent structural beam from the World Trade Center.

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An aerial view over World Trade Center on a partly cloudy day. One World Trade Center towers over the Memorial with the reflecting pools at its center. The skyline of lower Manhattan stands to the right.

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