Alexander Smith Cochran (1874-1929)
Alexander Smith Cochran, Yachtsman, of New York City
He was born at Yonkers, New York. He was educated at Yale where with the help of William Lyon Phelps he founded the Elizabethan Club with an endowment of $100,000 and gifts of many valuable books from that period. In 1902, he inherited $40 million as sole heir to the firm established by his grandfather, Alexander Smith & Sons Carpets, who by 1927 were the largest manufacturers of carpet in the world. He was a member of the New York Yacht Club and in 1910 his yacht, Westward won every race in German waters and eight out of nine in English waters. In 1914, he contended for the America's Cup but lost to Sir Thomas Lipton. In 1920, at Paris, he married the American-Polish singer, Ganna Walska, becoming the third of her six husbands before they divorced in 1922. He lived in New York City and was the last private owner of Brookholt on Long Island before buying Glen Eyrie Castle in Colorado Springs.
