Morse, Samuel F. B. (Samuel Finley Brown), 1886-1969.

Samuel Finley Brown Morse, great grandson of the inventor of the telegraph, was born in Newton, Massachusetts, July 18, 1886. He moved to San Francisco, California after graduation from Yale and became associated with the Crocker family when he served as manager of the Crocker-Huffman Land & Water Company. In 1915, Morse became General Manager of the Pacific Improvement Company, a position he held until 1967. He died in Pebble Beach, California in 1969.

From the description of Samuel Morse papers, 1911-1969. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 462018807

Biography

• 1885 July 18: Born in Newton, Mass.
• 1903: Graduated from Phillips Andover Academy.
• 1907: Graduated from Yale University.
• 1907 - 1910 : Manager of a land developnent project for John Nays Haanonci in California.
• 1910 - 1915 : Manager of Crocker-Huffman Land & Water Co., Merced, Ca.
• 1915 - 1919 : Secretory and General. Manager of Pacific Improvement Company, liquidation proceedings dragged on and S.F.B. Morse retained this position until 1967.
• 1919 - 1969 : Organizer, President, part owner (with Herbert Fleishacker) and later Cflairman of the Board of Del Monte Properties Co.
• 1916 - 1956 : Senior Director of Crocker 1st National Bank.
• 1916 - 1956 : Other Positions : Advisory Council of Crocker-Anglo National Bank, U. S. Loaning Corp., As5ociate Fellow of Morse College, Yale University.
• 1916 - 1966 : Clubs : Links, Racquet and Tennis (New York), Pacific-Union, Burlingame Country, Cypress Point (Calif.).
• 1966: Awarded LL.D by University of California.
• 1969, May 11: Died in Pebble Beach, Calif.

Biography

S.F.B. Morse (1886-1969) was the great grandson and namesake of the inventor of the telegraph. Though his family was from Boston, he moved out to San Francisco, almost immediately after his graduation from Yale (where he was captain of the football team) in 1907. He became associated with the Crockers and after making a success of the Crocker-Hoffman Land and Water Company, which he managed, he was subsequently offered a position managing the Pacific Improvement Company in 1915. Since the heirs of the original owners of Southern Pacific (Stanford, Crocker, Hopkins, Huntington) had sold out the Railroad they were also interested in liquidating the Pacific Improvement Co., which had originally been the construction company for the railroad and had since become a holding company for many various concerns. The liquidation became Morse's job and he expedited about 90 percent of that task in his first five years on the job. However, the remainder of the job dragged on until 1967, almost fifty years later. Morse's most triumphant personal deal was buying Pacific Improvement Co. land on the Monterey Peninsula himself. The company that he formed of it in 1919, Del Monte Properties, became his pet and very profitable project because he developed that land into tremendously valuable resort and private real estate (i.e. Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, etc.).

From the guide to the Samuel F. B. (Samuel Finley Brown) Morse Papers, 1911-1969, (Department of Special Collections and University Archives)