To the left of the altar is to the church benefactors Haley Fiske and his second wife Marion Cushman. Fiske was a leader of St. Mary the Virgin for 30 years, and a member for nearly 50 years. He helped make it a prominent congregation. Below the memorial is a Spanish repousse plaque depicting the Adoration of the Magi. It is set in an ornate frame with roundels and malachite decorations.
Haley Fiske
(b. 1852 New Brunswick, NJ – d. NYC 1929)
was the President of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He was a graduate of Rutgers University. Fiske served Metropolitan Life for over 30 years, and under his leadership the company grew. In 1909, as a Met Life vice president, Fiske announced that 'insurance, not merely as a business proposition, but as a social program,' would be the future policy of the company. As a first step, he hired the pioneering industrial social worker Lee Frankel to work at Met Life. Frankel envisioned insurance as a powerful means of improving the lot of the underprivileged.He could be controversial, such as when he told his policyholders to denounce government ownership of utilities because their life insurance funds were invested in private utility companies. He thought of Met Life as a public institution. On the day of his funeral, the headquarters of Metropolitan Life were closed and 10,000 people were given the day off as the insurance industry mourned his passing. He was a dedicated philanthropist and helped raise money for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Fiske gave generously to St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in Manhattan; his funeral mass, held there, was attended by 2,000 mourners. He was buried in Trinity Cemetery.
|
1) St. Mary the Virgin Church Map [41]
