Alexander Smith Cochran

Alexander Smith Cochran (February 28, 1874 – June 20, 1929 ) was a manufacturer, sportsman and philanthropist from Yonkers, New York.

Cochran bought the clubhouse on College Street, provided the club with an endowment of $100,000 and donated a substantial collection of rare Elizabethan and Jacobean books.

Cochran, who maintained contact with the club, occasionally made up shortfalls in the operating costs to prevent a member fee from being instituted.

Yale's Sterling Memorial Library has exhibited papers and other material highlighting Cochran's philanthropy.

Cochran decided to build a schooner that could make the Atlantic crossing and compete well in Europe, and ordered the Westward built between 1909 and 1910 by Nathanael Herreshoff of the Herreschoff Manufacturing Company of Rhode Island.

Cochran became known as the "richest bachelor in New York," from press coverage of his marriage to the actress and singer Ganna Walska.

[12] Cochran met Walska in 1919, married her in Paris and briefly lived with her in his Murray Hill home.