[1] His great-great-grandfather was Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.
In 1936, he joined Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.[3] During the Second World War, he served as an intelligence officer for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and rose to the rank of Major.
[1] He was a founding member and President of the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame in Goshen, New York, where he was inducted in 1975.
The stable produced two winners of the Hambletonian Stakes: Titan Hanover in 1945 and Flirth in 1973.
[8] He also served as Trustee and President of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, founded by his grandfather, Elbridge Thomas Gerry, in 1875.
[15] His granddaughter, Averell Tritton Ryland, a client services manager for The Trium Group, married Frederick Pennington McFerran, the founder and the chief executive of Knack who is the son of Alexander Y. McFerran, in 2012.