Cornelius Vander Starr

Cornelius Vander Starr, also known as Neil Starr or C.V. Starr (October 15, 1892 – December 20, 1968), was an American businessman and philanthropist best known for founding C.V. Starr & Co. in Shanghai, China, in 1919, which later evolved into the insurance giant American International Group (AIG). Born in Fort Bragg, California, to parents of Dutch ancestry, Starr’s father was a railroad engineer. His early life was marked by entrepreneurial spirit and a drive for global exploration. After briefly attending the University of California, Berkeley (1910–1911), he dropped out and returned to Fort Bragg, where he started his first business selling ice cream at age 19. In 1918, he joined the U.S. Army but was not deployed overseas due to the end of World War I. His desire to travel led him to work as a clerk for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in Yokohama, Japan, before moving to Shanghai, where he founded American Asiatic Underwriters (later American International Underwriters), the precursor to AIG. Forced to relocate to New York in 1939 due to Japan’s invasion of China, Starr built AIG into the world’s largest insurance company, growing from a $300 million market value to $180 billion. Beyond business, Starr was a philanthropist, establishing the C.V. Starr Foundation in 1955, which has since donated over $3.8 billion to causes in education, healthcare, culture, and public policy. He died in New York City in 1968, leaving his residuary estate to the foundation. CIA and OSS Connections Starr’s involvement with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the CIA, during World War II is a significant aspect of his career, reflecting his role in intelligence and geopolitical strategy. In 1943, Starr collaborated with William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the OSS, to establish the OSS Insurance Intelligence Unit, a secretive operation that leveraged the global reach of the insurance industry to gather intelligence. This unit, part of the OSS’s elite counterintelligence branch X-2, utilized insurance data to identify strategic targets, such as factories, bridges, and cargo ships critical to the Axis powers, particularly Nazi Germany. The unit’s work provided critical information, including pothole counts for invasion routes and population data for targeted areas, aiding Allied efforts to disrupt enemy operations. Starr also served as the chief operative supporting Claire L. Chennault, a former U.S. Army Air Force officer who led the OSS-backed American Volunteer Group, known as the “Flying Tigers.” This group conducted covert operations against Japanese forces in China without a formal declaration of war, aiming to bolster Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government against Japanese aggression. Starr and the OSS later supported Chiang over Communist leader Mao Zedong in the Chinese Civil War, reflecting Starr’s alignment with U.S. anti-communist efforts in Asia. After World War II, Starr’s OSS connections continued to influence his business. He hired OSS captain Duncan Lee, a lawyer, as AIG’s long-term general counsel, a move that strengthened the company’s ties to U.S. intelligence networks. When Mao’s Communist forces advanced on Shanghai in 1949, Starr relocated AIG’s headquarters to New York City, a decision likely informed by his intelligence background and geopolitical foresight. Critical Perspective While Starr’s OSS activities demonstrate his integration into U.S. intelligence efforts, the extent of his influence and motivations remains debated. His insurance empire provided a unique platform for intelligence gathering, as the industry’s global networks offered access to economic and logistical data valuable to wartime strategy. However, some sources suggest that Starr’s primary focus remained his business, with OSS work being a strategic alignment rather than a central pursuit. The lack of detailed public records about the OSS Insurance Intelligence Unit, due to its classified nature, limits definitive conclusions about Starr’s role. Nonetheless, his contributions to the OSS, particularly through the Flying Tigers and support for Chiang Kai-shek, underscore his significance in U.S. covert operations during a pivotal period. Starr’s legacy blends entrepreneurial success with covert contributions to U.S. foreign policy, making him a complex figure whose intelligence connections amplified his global influence. His work with the OSS not only aided the war effort but also positioned AIG as a key player in post-war international markets, reflecting the intersection of business and geopolitics in his career.

Cornelius Vander Starr (October 15, 1892 – December 20, 1968), sometimes known as Neil Starr, was an American businessman and founder of C.V. Starr & Co. (later known as Starr Companies) in Shanghai, China, which became insurance giant AIG and AIA Group.

AIG grew from an initial market value of $300 million to $180 billion, becoming the largest insurance company in the world.

Early life

Starr was born to parents of Dutch ancestry. His father was a railroad engineer.<ref name="aig">Template:Cite web</ref> Starr attended University of California, Berkeley from 1910 to 1911 before dropping out and returning to his hometown of Fort Bragg, California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There he began his first business venture, selling ice cream, at the age of nineteen.

He joined the U.S. Army in 1918 but was never deployed overseas because World War I had ended. Unable to resist a strong urge to travel and understand the world, he joined the Pacific Mail Steamship Company as a clerk in Yokohama, Japan. Later that year, he traveled to Shanghai where he worked for several insurance businesses.

Starr Companies

In 1919 he founded what was then known as American Asiatic Underwriters (later American International Underwriters) in Shanghai, China, a global insurance and investment organization. He was forced to move his operation to New York in 1939, when Japan invaded China.<ref name=fritz/> Starr worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and found himself engaged in such work as establishing the OSS insurance intelligence unit with William "Wild Bill" Donovan in 1943 and serving as the chief operative behind former U.S. Army Air Force officer Claire L. Chennault. Chennault is best known for coordinating the OSS-bankrolled American Volunteer Group (better known as the "Flying Tigers") to bring the fight to the Japanese without a declaration of war and return Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to dominance in China. Starr and the OSS later backed Chiang over Communist leader Mao Zedong.

In 2000, war correspondent and author Mark Fritz wrote in the article entitled The Secret (Insurance) Agent Men for the Los Angeles Times:

They knew which factories to burn, which bridges to blow up, which cargo ships could be sunk in good conscience. They had pothole counts for roads used for invasion and head counts for city blocks marked for incineration. They weren't just secret agents. They were secret insurance agents. These undercover underwriters gave their World War II spymasters access to a global industry that both bankrolled and, ultimately, helped bring down Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.<ref name=fritz>Fritz, Mark. "The Secret (Insurance) Agent Men." Los Angeles Times (September 22, 2000): A7, A12. Archived from the original. "Newly declassified U.S. intelligence files tell the remarkable story of the ultra-secret Insurance Intelligence Unit, a component of the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA, and its elite counterintelligence branch X-2." (p. A7)</ref>

After World War II, Starr hired O.S.S. captain Duncan Lee, a lawyer, who became the long-term general counsel of AIG.

AIG left China in early 1949, as Mao led the advance of the Communist People's Liberation Army on Shanghai,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Starr moved the company headquarters to its current home in New York City.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> AIG was the world's largest insurance company, and as of 2021 remains unchallenged in that respect.<ref name=schner>"Maurice Greenberg and David Schner Dialogue" (video). A Centenary Story of C.V. Starr & Co: China and the US in 2018 and Beyond. Hosted by the Bank of China / China General Chamber of Commerce (USA), New York City, September 6, 2018. 26 min.</ref>

Legacy

File:C.V. Starr Laboratory, MBL.jpg

C.V. Starr Laboratory at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts

In 1955 he founded the C. V. Starr Foundation, to which he left his entire residuary estate, after a small amount in the eight figures along with his home in Brewster was awarded to his niece upon his death in 1968. He set up several other trusts for his close relatives. The sum of money left to his niece and relatives (not including the majority of his wealth left to charity) would have been worth several billion USD in the 21st century. Since its founding, the foundation has made more than $3.8 billion in grants worldwide in education, medicine and healthcare, human needs, public policy, culture, and the environment.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University was named for Starr in recognition of an endowment gift by the Starr Foundation in 1981. Starr's alma mater, Berkeley, is also home to the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, which houses 900,000 volumes in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other East Asian languages, making it one of the top two such collections in the United States outside of the Library of Congress.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Students at Hofstra University will know C.V. Starr Hall as home to the Frank G. Zarb School of Business, a state-of-the-art technologically advanced building, which opened for classes in the fall of 2000 and houses the Martin B. Greenberg Trading Room complete with a stock ticker that is delayed only 15 minutes from Wall Street.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience in Chestertown, MD, works in conjunction with Washington College to promote the American Pictures Series at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Starr was also an early investor in skiing at Mount Mansfield in Stowe, Vermont,<ref name=epic>The epic history of Stowe Mountain Resort</ref> acquiring the Stowe Mountain Resort in 1949. It passed on to AIG in 1988.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> One of the famous Front Four double diamond trails there is named Starr in his honor, as is the base lodge of the Middlebury Bowl, the private ski slope belonging to Middlebury College in Vermont.

References

Template:Reflist An On-line Exhibition: Cornelius Vander Starr, his life and work: https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/cvstarr / exhibit curator, Ria Koopmans-de Bruijn / Published New York, N.Y. : C.V. Starr East Asian Library, [2015].

External links

• The Starr Foundation – information about Cornelius Vander Starr.
• C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience (archived 1 October 2007)