Ridley Watts (1872-1937)
of Ridley Watts & Co., Cotton & Textile Merchants, New York City
He entered the cotton goods commission firm of Grinnell, Willis & Co. in 1890 and continued there until 1920 when he became the senior partner of what was from then known as Ridley Watts & Co., wholesale cotton goods merchants, and he was recognized as one of the leading figures in the American textile business. During WWI, he was a member of the War Work Council of the Y.M.C.A. and served as head of the textile division of the Liberty Loan drives. After retiring in 1929, he was a director of the Chemical Bank & Trust Company, the Morristown Trust Company, the Morristown Securities Corporation, the New York Life Insurance Company, the Continental Insurance Company, the Victor-Monaghan Company, the Marion Manufacturing Company, the Wallace Manufacturing Company, the Industrial Cotton Mills Company, the Mortbon Corporation of New York and the Piedmont Manufacturing Company. In 1900, he married Gertrude Hoy and they were the parents of four sons and one daughter.
