Ferrytale: The Career of W. H. "Ping" Ferry - Hardcover

Ward, James A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804741573 ISBN 13: 9780804741576

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Wilbur H. “Ping” Ferry (1910-1995) was a self-styled “town crank,” an influential and iconoclastic figure who seemingly knew everyone worth knowing in the mid-twentieth century.

Businessman, thinker, activist, government advisor, and philanthropist, Ping’s career was as varied as his pronouncements. He taught John F. Kennedy at Choate, advised Eddie Rickenbacker at Eastern Airlines, worked a craps table in Havana, reported for several New Hampshire newspapers, and handled public relations for Sidney Hillman and his CIO/PAC. After World War II, he joined a public relations firm where he worked closely with Henry Ford II and John D. Rockefeller. He helped Ford establish his foundation, and with Robert Hutchins set up the Fund for the Republic, which later became the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California.

From his post as Vice President of the Center, Ping harangued the nation about the evils of technology, environmental degradation, racial inequality, educational deficiencies, and the threat of nuclear war. He gained national fame when he attacked America’s last and most sacred cow, J. Edgar Hoover (“our official spy-swatter . . . in these persistent reports about espionage and sabotage, is he delicately telling us that he isn’t up to the job, that Red spies are running loose despite his best efforts?”). He also publicly resigned from the Democratic Party in protest against President Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam policy, and promoted televised executions as the best way of combating capital punishment. Ping gave away millions of dollars to minorities and those who suffered from government’s intolerance. He fought for world-wide disarmament by supporting with friendship and money such luminaries as E. P. Thompson, the great English social historian and founder of European Nuclear Disarmament.

The book also reveals that Ping had a quieter, softer side. He treasured his friends, who were to be found across the globe, played the piano, formed a close relationship with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, and assisted many struggling artists. He attracted followers who admired his independence and forthrightness, people who wished to be more like him. In Victor Navasky’s words, Ping’s ultimate importance was “the impossible example he set for the rest of us.”

About this title

About the Author

James A. Ward is Guerry Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

From the Back Cover

Wilbur H. “Ping” Ferry (1910-1995) was a self-styled “town crank,” an influential and iconoclastic figure who seemingly knew everyone worth knowing in the mid-twentieth century.
Businessman, thinker, activist, government advisor, and philanthropist, Ping’s career was as varied as his pronouncements. He taught John F. Kennedy at Choate, advised Eddie Rickenbacker at Eastern Airlines, worked a craps table in Havana, reported for several New Hampshire newspapers, and handled public relations for Sidney Hillman and his CIO/PAC. After World War II, he joined a public relations firm where he worked closely with Henry Ford II and John D. Rockefeller. He helped Ford establish his foundation, and with Robert Hutchins set up the Fund for the Republic, which later became the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California.
From his post as Vice President of the Center, Ping harangued the nation about the evils of technology, environmental degradation, racial inequality, educational deficiencies, and the threat of nuclear war. He gained national fame when he attacked America’s last and most sacred cow, J. Edgar Hoover (“our official spy-swatter . . . in these persistent reports about espionage and sabotage, is he delicately telling us that he isn’t up to the job, that Red spies are running loose despite his best efforts?”). He also publicly resigned from the Democratic Party in protest against President Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam policy, and promoted televised executions as the best way of combating capital punishment. Ping gave away millions of dollars to minorities and those who suffered from government’s intolerance. He fought for world-wide disarmament by supporting with friendship and money such luminaries as E. P. Thompson, the great English social historian and founder of European Nuclear Disarmament.
The book also reveals that Ping had a quieter, softer side. He treasured his friends, who were to be found across the globe, played the piano, formed a close relationship with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, and assisted many struggling artists. He attracted followers who admired his independence and forthrightness, people who wished to be more like him. In Victor Navasky’s words, Ping’s ultimate importance was “the impossible example he set for the rest of us.”

From the Inside Flap

Wilbur H. “Ping” Ferry (1910-1995) was a self-styled “town crank,” an influential and iconoclastic figure who seemingly knew everyone worth knowing in the mid-twentieth century.
Businessman, thinker, activist, government advisor, and philanthropist, Ping’s career was as varied as his pronouncements. He taught John F. Kennedy at Choate, advised Eddie Rickenbacker at Eastern Airlines, worked a craps table in Havana, reported for several New Hampshire newspapers, and handled public relations for Sidney Hillman and his CIO/PAC. After World War II, he joined a public relations firm where he worked closely with Henry Ford II and John D. Rockefeller. He helped Ford establish his foundation, and with Robert Hutchins set up the Fund for the Republic, which later became the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California.
From his post as Vice President of the Center, Ping harangued the nation about the evils of technology, environmental degradation, racial inequality, educational deficiencies, and the threat of nuclear war. He gained national fame when he attacked America’s last and most sacred cow, J. Edgar Hoover (“our official spy-swatter . . . in these persistent reports about espionage and sabotage, is he delicately telling us that he isn’t up to the job, that Red spies are running loose despite his best efforts?”). He also publicly resigned from the Democratic Party in protest against President Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam policy, and promoted televised executions as the best way of combating capital punishment. Ping gave away millions of dollars to minorities and those who suffered from government’s intolerance. He fought for world-wide disarmament by supporting with friendship and money such luminaries as E. P. Thompson, the great English social historian and founder of European Nuclear Disarmament.
The book also reveals that Ping had a quieter, softer side. He treasured his friends, who were to be found across the globe, played the piano, formed a close relationship with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, and assisted many struggling artists. He attracted followers who admired his independence and forthrightness, people who wished to be more like him. In Victor Navasky’s words, Ping’s ultimate importance was “the impossible example he set for the rest of us.”

Reviews

In this moderately successful biography, Ping Ferry (1910-1995) plays many roles: journalist, public relations executive, government administrator, public intellectual and philanthropist. Ferry was a born iconoclast something traceable to his complex relationship with his father. Ferry was everything his father was not: nonconformist, leftist in his politics and absolutely convinced that wealth should be used to improve the world. During the 1920s and '30s, Ferry roamed from job to job. He taught at Choate, where one of his students was John F. Kennedy. He worked as a reporter for the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader and handled public relations for Eastern Airlines. During WWII, Ferry worked for the Office of Price Administration, which helped organize the wartime economy. After the war, he found the job that would change his life: public relations executive for Earl Newsom & Company. At Newsom, Ferry worked closely with the Ford Foundation, becoming involved with the disbursement of millions of dollars to a variety of causes, including civil rights and civil liberties. Ferry was a vocal critic of McCarthyism and a champion of the First Amendment. In 1954, he helped set up the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions and traveled the country, speaking out against nuclear weapons, big business and U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Ferry became increasingly militant on civil rights he even proposed the establishment of autonomous "black colonies" within the United States. During the 1970s and '80s, Ferry advocated unilateral nuclear disarmament. Ping Ferry left an important legacy in radical political circles, and this sympathetic biography unabashedly celebrates his life.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804741573
• ISBN 13: 9780804741576
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264