Kate Macy Ladd

Biography

Ladd was born in New York City, a descendant of Thomas and Sarah Macy, Massachusetts settlers in the late 1630s. She was a granddaughter of Captain Josiah Macy, originally of Nantucket, who founded a firm that became New York's first oil refinery in the 1860s (later sold to the Standard Oil Company).

Ladd's father died in 1876 at only 39 years old, when Ladd was still a teenager. At 20 years old, Ladd married lawyer and yachtsman Walter Graeme Ladd (1857–1933) on December 5, 1883. She was plagued by some disease or condition; she was describes "an invalid" since her early 20s. Upon her father's death, she inherited an estimated $15 million (equivalent to $337,359,000 in 2016). In 1925, she received an honorary MA from New Jersey College for Women.

In 1930, amidst the Great Depression, Ladd created the foundation named for her father with $5 million initial endowment (equivalent to $71,683,000 in 2016) to be used for "preventing and curing disease and relieving human suffering." The foundation was enormously successful. Within 15 years, its endowment had grown to $7 million and it had given away from $4.5 to $5 million to various causes, primarily to universities and agencies around the world. One of its earliest grants was in 1930, to fund a fellowship for a "competent collaborator" for Albert Einstein. The foundation funded research and studies on health topics including the process of aging, endocrinology, nutrition, and convalescent care.

After World War II began, the foundation provided aid for war veterans but also launched specific research into treatments for surgical shock and burns, antibiotics such as sulfa and penicillin, and biological studies on the use of heavy hydrogen. In 1943, with the United States fighting in the Pacific theater, the foundation endowed $150,000 to create a five-year research and teaching in program of tropical medicine at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. It also invested $1 million into a research service to distribute medical literature to armies and navies of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

In addition to her own foundation, Ladd gave generously to other charities.

She died in 1945 in Far Hills, New Jersey, and left a further $2.5 million to the Macy foundation.

Natirar estate

The Ladds turned their Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey estate, Natirar, into a convalescent home, which was used to give free two-week vacations for working class New Yorkers. It was shut down after the war began as it was set aside as an emergency shelter for New York City, which was making preparations for a possible blitz like Britain was experiencing.

On Walter Ladd's death, and in accordance with his will, Natirar was sold to King Hassan II of Morocco. On the king's death in 1999, it was inherited by his son, Mohammed VI. More recently, Natirar has been leased by billionaire industrialist Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group. It is set to be converted into a spa, restaurant, and hotel complex called The Virgin Spa at Natirar.