Huntington Hartford

Who was Huntington Hartford?

George Huntington Hartford II was an heir to the A&P supermarket fortune.

When he died in 2008, obituaries noted that, Hartford "had once ranked among the world's richest people". Hartford was an American businessman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and art collector. He owned Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and had numerous other business and real estate interests over his lifetime including the Oil Shale Corporation, which he founded in 1955.

Huntington's father, Edward V. Hartford, died when Huntington was 11, leaving the son as one of the heirs to the estate left by his grandfather and namesake, George Huntington Hartford. Huntington's mother, Henrietta Guerard Pollitzer, moved her family to Newport, Rhode Island and sent Huntington away to school. He ultimately graduated from Harvard in 1934 but only briefly worked for A&P. For the rest of his life, Huntington focused on numerous other business and charitable enterprises.

Huntington was married four times, all ending in divorce, and had four children. He lived the last years of his life in the Bahamas with his daughter, Juliet.