As It Was: A Memoir

“Robert M. Pennoyer was born into a storied family - his maternal grandfather was the legendary J. P. Morgan. His irresistible memoir traces his sheltered childhood on the Gold Coast of Long Island; an adolescence overshadowed by the gathering clouds of World War II; and a young adulthood that survived one of the decisive engagements of the Pacific Theater - Iwo Jima. The author gives us as well a heartwarming account of a romance that blossomed into a lifelong matrimonial partnership and a close family life, tested nonetheless by crisis. And he chronicles a distinguished career, the early part of which was spent in the service of President Eisenhower and the latter part in private law practice and pro bono work.

As It Was begins in an era of unprecedented wealth and privilege for some and great misery and poverty for others, - one that Mark Twain lampooned as the “Gilded Age,” and ends, coming in effect full circle, in our own era of the One Per Cent, as the income chasm in America reopens. What divides these periods, and is so impressively portrayed here, is the rise of American Progressivism led by the two Roosevelts.

Most importantly, this book is itself a demonstration of the values that boosted America on its path to greatness and for which no finer exemplar could be found than its author. It bespeaks a belief in democracy that is passionate and unshakable, and builds on a deep appreciation of the institutions that enable it. The spirit that flows through these pages may be modest, but it is also filled with an irrepressible optimism and a faith in simple values that are both uplifting and marvelously contagious. As It Was is a lesson in a life well lived, and a tonic for dark and troubled times.”
-- Scott Horton, author of Lords of Secrecy: The National Security Elite and America’s Stealth Warfare (2015), contributing editor,Harper’s Magazine.

1122099288
As It Was: A Memoir

“Robert M. Pennoyer was born into a storied family - his maternal grandfather was the legendary J. P. Morgan. His irresistible memoir traces his sheltered childhood on the Gold Coast of Long Island; an adolescence overshadowed by the gathering clouds of World War II; and a young adulthood that survived one of the decisive engagements of the Pacific Theater - Iwo Jima. The author gives us as well a heartwarming account of a romance that blossomed into a lifelong matrimonial partnership and a close family life, tested nonetheless by crisis. And he chronicles a distinguished career, the early part of which was spent in the service of President Eisenhower and the latter part in private law practice and pro bono work.

As It Was begins in an era of unprecedented wealth and privilege for some and great misery and poverty for others, - one that Mark Twain lampooned as the “Gilded Age,” and ends, coming in effect full circle, in our own era of the One Per Cent, as the income chasm in America reopens. What divides these periods, and is so impressively portrayed here, is the rise of American Progressivism led by the two Roosevelts.

Most importantly, this book is itself a demonstration of the values that boosted America on its path to greatness and for which no finer exemplar could be found than its author. It bespeaks a belief in democracy that is passionate and unshakable, and builds on a deep appreciation of the institutions that enable it. The spirit that flows through these pages may be modest, but it is also filled with an irrepressible optimism and a faith in simple values that are both uplifting and marvelously contagious. As It Was is a lesson in a life well lived, and a tonic for dark and troubled times.”
-- Scott Horton, author of Lords of Secrecy: The National Security Elite and America’s Stealth Warfare (2015), contributing editor,Harper’s Magazine.

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As It Was: A Memoir

As It Was: A Memoir

by Robert M. Pennoyer
As It Was: A Memoir

As It Was: A Memoir

by Robert M. Pennoyer

Hardcover

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Overview


“Robert M. Pennoyer was born into a storied family - his maternal grandfather was the legendary J. P. Morgan. His irresistible memoir traces his sheltered childhood on the Gold Coast of Long Island; an adolescence overshadowed by the gathering clouds of World War II; and a young adulthood that survived one of the decisive engagements of the Pacific Theater - Iwo Jima. The author gives us as well a heartwarming account of a romance that blossomed into a lifelong matrimonial partnership and a close family life, tested nonetheless by crisis. And he chronicles a distinguished career, the early part of which was spent in the service of President Eisenhower and the latter part in private law practice and pro bono work.

As It Was begins in an era of unprecedented wealth and privilege for some and great misery and poverty for others, - one that Mark Twain lampooned as the “Gilded Age,” and ends, coming in effect full circle, in our own era of the One Per Cent, as the income chasm in America reopens. What divides these periods, and is so impressively portrayed here, is the rise of American Progressivism led by the two Roosevelts.

Most importantly, this book is itself a demonstration of the values that boosted America on its path to greatness and for which no finer exemplar could be found than its author. It bespeaks a belief in democracy that is passionate and unshakable, and builds on a deep appreciation of the institutions that enable it. The spirit that flows through these pages may be modest, but it is also filled with an irrepressible optimism and a faith in simple values that are both uplifting and marvelously contagious. As It Was is a lesson in a life well lived, and a tonic for dark and troubled times.”
-- Scott Horton, author of Lords of Secrecy: The National Security Elite and America’s Stealth Warfare (2015), contributing editor,Harper’s Magazine.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781632260451
Publisher: Easton Studio Press, LLC
Publication date: 10/20/2015
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 6.40(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author


Robert M. Pennoyer attended St. Paul's School and Harvard College. During World War II he saw action in the Pacific as a young Naval officer. After graduation from Columbia Law School, he became, successively, a Federal prosecutor, and a counsel in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during the Eisenhower years. In 1958 he returned to private practice in New York, joining a small firm, Patterson Belknap & Webb, which he helped to build into one of the leading firms in the country. For many years he served as counsel to the Rockefeller foundation.

Committed to public service, Pennoyer founded a halfway house for men emerging from prison, and over the years served as a trustee of Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and, for half a century each, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Morgan Library.

In the 1970s, under his leadership as president, the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation established, at the suggestion of his poet wife, Victoria Parsons Pennoyer, the prestigious Whiting Writers’ Awards.

He lives on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and, at the age of 90, still goes to the office every day.

Table of Contents

Part I My Roots

1 Boyhood 3

2 Brother Paul 24

3 Childhood Places 29

4 Dad 40

5 Uncle Richard 49

6 Uncle Sheldon 52

7 Grandpa Morgan 56

Part II Into the Gathering Storm

8 School in Prewar Europe 83

9 Great-Aunt Anne Morgan 102

Part III The War Years

10 Training 109

11 The Pacific 120

12 Letters Home 139

13 Afterthoughts 147

Part IV A New Life

14 Falling in Love 153

15 My New Family 160

16 Jimmy Parsons 170

17 Law School 177

18 Marriage 179

19 At the Bar 186

20 Foley Square 190

Part V Washington, D.C.

21 Serving Ike 199

22 Confronting McCarthy 203

23 Defending Ike's Budget 210

24 Seeing the World 216

25 Speaking Out 220

Part VI New York

26 Private Practice 229

27 Private Life 246

28 From Darkness to Light 254

Part VII Giving Back

29 Behind the Pulpit 259

30 East Harlem 262

31 The Met and the Morgan 264

32 Human Rights 272

33 The War on Women 276

34 A Foot Soldier in Politics 281

35 The Bullitt Adventure 287

Part VIII Shadows of the Evening

36 Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow 301

Acknowledgments 307

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