Dunbar Wright Bostwick (1908 - 2006)

Born 10 Jan 1908 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died 25 Jan 2006 at age 98 in Shelburne, Chittenden, Vermont, United States

Biography

Dunbar Bostwick is Notable.

Dunbar Wright Bostwick (January 10, 1908 - January 25, 2006) was an American businessman, hockey player, pilot and horseman.

Dunbar W. Bostwick, Harness Racing Innovator, Dies at 98

By WOLFGANG SAXONJAN. 28, 2006

Dunbar W. Bostwick, a sportsman who bred and campaigned many winning trotters, founded racetracks and pioneered new gadgets and training techniques for harness racing, died on Wednesday at his home in Shelburne, Vt. He was 98.

His death was announced by Christopher W. Davis, a grandson and his executor.

Mr. Bostwick, a founding director and former treasurer of the Saratoga Harness Racing Association, was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Trotter in 1988. He was a past director and treasurer of the United States Trotting Association. He devised the magnetic snap barrier, a forerunner of the moving starting gates used at tracks today.

He bred, trained and raced winning standard-bred trotters, including Boyne, Nibble Hanover, Chris Spencer, Kuno, Speedy Tomali (named New Jersey Horse of the Year in 1986) and Super Speedy. His most famous horse, Chris Spencer, ended a successful year lame as a 2-year-old, prompting Mr. Bostwick to use a now-common practice of swimming horses to train them.

He did so twice a day, piloting a small motorboat on Lake Champlain and making the horse perform the trot without the weight of pounding a dirt track. Chris Spencer made a celebrated comeback, training in Vermont and even traveling by air to California to win the prestigious Hollywood Stakes race in 1952.

Dunbar Wright Bostwick was born into a sporting family with money. His father, Albert, set early automobile speed records; his paternal grandfather, Jabez, was a self-made railroad investor who was John D. Rockefeller's partner in founding the Standard Oil Company and died in a spectacular stable fire on his Long Island estate in 1892. His brother Pete Bostwick was a famous polo player and gentleman jockey.

Dunbar Bostwick graduated in 1932 from Yale, where he was co-captain of the illustrious 1932 Yale ice hockey team. In World War II, he served on the Army Air Forces planning staff for the Normandy invasion and returned as a lieutenant colonel with a Bronze Star.

A resident of Shelburne since 1932, he operated the Bostwick Farm, known for Vermont-bred trotters and Holstein and Hereford cattle. He was a founding trustee of the Shelburne Museum, a trustee of the University of Vermont and a supporter of other charitable causes.

In the 1930's, he was a polo player with a 6-goal handicap and helped build Bostwick Field in Old Westbury, N.Y., then a venue for international polo matches. He also founded the Aiken Mile Track for harness racing in Aiken, S.C.

His numerous business interest affiliations included the Aviation Instrument Manufacturing Corporation, and he was a private pilot flying out of Roosevelt Field on Long Island, where he tested early radio navigation systems and helped build a better instrument landing device.

Mr. Bostwick is survived by two daughters, Dundeen B. Catlin, of Washington Depot, Conn., and Elliot B. Wood of San Rafael, Calif.; 13 grandchildren; and 22 great-grandchildren. His first wife, Electra Webb Bostwick, died in 1981; his second wife, Jeanne White Burden, died in 1995.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Dunbar Bostwick
• "Vermont Vital Records, 1760-2008," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KN3N-719 : 6 December 2014), Dunbar Wright Bostwick, Death, 25 Jan 2006, Shelburne, Chittenden, Vermont, United States; from "Vermont, Death Records, 1909-2008," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2010); citing Vital Records Office, Vermont Department of Health, Burlington and New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston.
• "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JBCX-TZD : 20 May 2014), Dunbar W Bostwick, 25 Jan 2006; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
• Find A Grave: Memorial #116777163 for Dunbar Wright Bostwick (10 Jan 1908–25 Jan 2006), citing Webb-West Cemetery, Shelburne, Chittenden County, Vermont, USA ; Maintained by Sandy King (contributor 47512512) .