Robert Winsor

Who was Robert Winsor?

Robert Winsor was a leading American financier, investment banker, and philanthropist who, as head of the Boston investment banking firm Kidder, Peabody & Co., was at the forefront of industrial consolidation during the period leading up to the Great Depression. After beginning his career at Kidder, Peabody in 1880 as a lowly clerk just out of college, Winsor was quickly promoted because of his business acumen, and was held in such great esteem by the 1920s that newspaper articles would refer to him as the "J.P. Morgan of Boston" and "one of the country's leading bankers."

Serving on the board of directors of several major corporations in various industries, particularly city railroads, mining, and utilities, Winsor was widely praised as a man of remarkable foresight, a man who had anticipated America’s need for improved transportation, utilities, banking, and communications. Under Winsor’s leadership, Kidder, Peabody developed from a local investment bank to one of the most powerful banking institutions in the world. He dominated his firm's operations until his sudden death in 1930, which nearly drove the firm out of business just after the Stock Market Crash.