Source: Salt Lake Telegram
Date: Apr. 16, 1920
VAIL OF PHONE FAME CALLED BY DEATH
Leading Figure in Electrical World Succumbs to Heart Attack
BALTIMORE, Md., April 16 - Theodore N. Vail, chairman of the
board of directors of the American Telephone and Telegraph company
and long a noted figure in the telephone and telegraph world, died
this morning at the hospital of Johns Hopkins university.
Vail became chairman upon his retirement as
president. He suffered from heart trouble, according to his
physicians. He spent the winter at Jekyll island, off the
coast of Georgia, and a week ago, when his condition became serious,
was taken to Johns Hopkins.
Vail was a pioneer in telephone and telegraph
organizations and was known throughout the world. He was born
in Carroll county, Ohio, July 16, 1845, and educated in Princeton
and Harvard universities.
Vail married Mabel Rutledge Sanderson of
Boston in 1907. His home was listed officially as Lyndonnville,
Vt.
Beginning life as a medical student, Vail soon
branched into general science, with a particular bent for
electricity. He was a friend of Thomas A. Edison.
Vail first entered the telephone business in
1878. He introduced the American system of electrical street
railways in Buenos Aires in 1896 and installed telephone systems in
the principal South American cities. He became president of
the American Telegraph & Telephone company in 1907. He was
also a director in several European electrical enterprises.
Burial probably will be at Parsippany, N. J. |
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