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General First nameRowland (Roy)
LastnameHazard III
GenderMale
CountryUnited States of America
Date of birth1881-10-29
Place of birthPeace Dale, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States of America
Date of death1945-12-20
Place of deathPeace Dale, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States of America


About

son of Rowland Gibson and Mary Pierrepont (Bushnell) Hazard, was born in Peace Dale, Rhode Island, October 29, 1881. He was prepared for college at the Taft School, Watertown, Connecticut, and then matriculated in Yale University, from which he was graduated in 1903 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. At college he majored in chemistry, a knowledge of which was to be of prime importance in connection with the coke and chemical industries in which the family was interested and in the further development of which he was to play an important part. After completing his formal college training, young Hazard traveled extensively, gaining thereby a kind and breadth of culture obtainable in no other way. His introduction to the world of business was made in the office of the By-products Coke Corporation, and from there he went into the Semet Solvay Company’s office in Syracuse. Having familiarized himself with the coke business, he returned to Peace Dale in 1907 to learn how woolens are manufactured. He began at the bottom in the wool-sorting department and worked through the mill step by step to the office. In 1910 he was made treasurer of the company and continued in that office until 1918, at which time he sold the mill for the account of the family to M. T. Stevens and Sons of North Andover, Massachusetts. It was not easy, from the standpoint of sentiment, to part with a business which had been in the family since 1800, and which was one of the oldest of its kind in this country; but economic movements are ruthless, and Mr. Hazard realized that it would be unwise and unfair to those employed to attempt much longer to compete in the market against vast aggregations of plants and capital.

In 1917 he had taken a position in the Ordnance Department of the United States Army, in which he was given the rank of captain on the civilian staff. He was employed as an expert on textiles. When the mill was sold, Captain Hazard went into the line, hoping to be sent overseas. Instead, he was made instructing officer and was sent in that capacity from one camp to another until the close of the war and he was demobilized in December, 1918.

The next important undertaking to which he gave his attention was the organization of the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation. Those in a position to know say that Mr. Hazard was an important factor in bringing about this combination, which absorbed the Solvay Process and allied companies in which his family had been for so long interested. Next, in 1920, he became identified with the private banking firm of Lee, Higginson and Company in New York City, and he spent the next seven years in financial operations. In 1927 he resigned to travel in Africa; but this proved to be an unfortunate step, for he contracted a tropical disease from which he was two years in recovering. In 1928 Mr. Hazard went to the Pacific Coast for his health. On his way there, he came across a property in New Mexico, which he subsequently purchased with the intention of engaging in ranching; and this purpose was carried out. But on the property, which is near the little town of LaLuz, he discovered a high grade clay adapted to the manufacture of art pottery. He organized the LaLuz Clay Products Company, which is now producing about fifty styles of vases and urns, all made by hand and along classic lines. For this work Mr. Hazard has employed the most talented practical and artistic potters he could find.

But he has not relinquished his interest and official connection with eastern corporations. He is a director of the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation; the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company; Interlake Iron Company, and others.

Like the other members of his family who have always borne their share of civic responsibility, Mr. Hazard served as a member and president of the Kingston Town Council, and from 1914 to 1916 he was a member of the State Senate, in which he served as a member of the finance committee.

He is a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity and Elihu Club in New Haven. His New York City clubs are: Broad Street, Racquet and Tennis; the Rhode Island Club, Agawam, Squantum and Turks Head in Providence; Chicago Club of Chicago; LaCumbre Club of Santa Barbara, California. Mr. Hazard’s principal hobby is music. He has done considerable writing for the voice.

Rowland Hazard married, October 5, 1910, Helen Hamilton Campbell, born in Chicago, April 13, 1889, daughter of Augustus Campbell. Four children have been born from this union: Caroline Campbell, Rowland Gibson, Peter Hamilton and Charles Ware Blake.

Mr. Hazard’s many and varied interests keep him in New York City and the Southwest for a large part of his time; but his legal residence is still in Rhode Island, and he has lost none of the love for the State and interest in all that concerns its welfare that has ever been a characteristic of the Hazard family.

Carroll, Charles. Rhode Island: Three Centuries of Democracy, vol 3 of 4. New York: Lewis historical Pub. Co., 1932.

Media


Archive statistics Career1907 - 1914
Tournament wins0
Matches11
Match wins5


Tournaments US Open - 1914 US Open - 1913 US Open - 1912 US Open - 1910 US Open - 1909 Longwood Bowl - 1907