Meyer, Eugene

Eugene Meyer, (born Oct. 31, 1875, Los Angeles—died July 17, 1959, Mt. Kisco, N.Y., U.S.), influential leader in American political and social life and publisher of The Washington Post from 1933 to 1946.

Upon graduating from Yale University (1895), Meyer worked in various European cities for two years learning the banking business. Soon after his return he established his own prosperous investment-banking firm. He was an influential financier when President Woodrow Wilson in 1917 named him an adviser to the government on nonferrous metals. He later served as managing director of the War Finance Commission under Wilson and in various high-ranking positions under the next six presidents. For Herbert Hoover he drafted legislation creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932) and became its first chairman. He was the first president of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank), founded in 1946.

In 1910 he had married Agnes Ernst. In 1933, when he bought The Washington Post, he installed her as vice president. She was by that time an influential author and journalist, noted for her work in the areas of health, education, and social conditions. Meyer served as publisher of the Post from 1933 until 1940 and as editor and publisher from 1940 to 1946. Under his direction the paper more than tripled its circulation and developed a strong editorial page and a tradition of responsible journalism. In 1947 Meyer turned over active management of the paper to his son-in-law Philip L. Graham, who had married the Meyers’ daughter Katharine.