James P. Wilmot

Who was James P. Wilmot?

James P. Wilmot was a pioneer aviation executive, landowner, philanthropist and horse breeder who served as Finance Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester is named in his honor.

Jim Wilmot was raised in Rochester, New York, the son of James Butler Wilmot and Josephine O'Leary. His father owned a small chain of clothing stores. Beginning his career as an employee of Rochester Municipal Airport, he started a pilot-training company called Page Airways. The company would grow to become an international aviation sales corporation that was the exclusive agent for Grumman Corp.'s Gulfstream G2 jets.

Mr. Wilmot served as a Corporate Director of Columbia Pictures and the Irving Trust in addition to co-founding and running Wilmorite Properties with his brother William F. Wilmot, the family's real estate development enterprise. He was chairman of the Democratic Party's Finance Committee, and a good friend of such figures as House Speaker Thomas P. Tip O'Neill, Senator Henry M. 'Scoop' Jackson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who relaxed at Wilmot's estate after the 1968 Presidential Election campaign.