George Eastman’s enormous circle of friends and beneficiaries, if deprived of the chance to say "goodbye," did have their chance to say "thank you."

Thomas J. Watson Sr. Says "Goodbye" to George Eastman

Published August 4, 2021
​Updated October 15, 2023

A Slice of Life Story: Thomas J. Watson Sr. and George Eastman

• Introduction
• Society of the Genesee Says "Thank You"
• The "Thank You" Was Actually "Goodbye"​

 Introduction

​It is tremendously educational to read about the men and women who worked with Tom Watson to build the economic infrastructure of the United States of America. Some of these individuals were his mentors and some he mentored, but I believe mostly they supported each other in their passionate causes.

In early 1931, Tom Watson made a special trip to Rochester, N.Y. He was on a mission to persuade George Eastman to allow the Society of the Genesee to hold a dinner in his honor. Mr. Eastman was a humble, retiring man. He had refused other requests, but he did not refuse Tom Watson’s personal appeal.

​There was a bond between these two men. First, evident in George Eastman’s acquiescence to Tom Watson’s face-to-face request, and second, because of what one reporter observed at the end of the dinner.

First Kodak image from Kodak Camera #1: System: The Magazine of Business

Over seven years, $10,000,000 dollars (approximately $180 million in 2019 dollars) found its way to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the anonymous name of “Mr. Smith.” It was one of the best kept secrets of the early 20th Century. Mr. Smith was George Eastman. The United States of America has been blessed with some unique industrialists who built both the economic infrastructure and the supportive educational systems that raised the standard of living by raising wages and educational levels, reducing work hours, and producing products at ever lower prices with higher levels of quality and usability. Through this process they created whole new marketplaces for their products. In the case of George Eastman, he took the world from photography by professionals to mass photography—the beginning of the cameras and never ending “selfies” taken for granted today.

The following is a slice-of-life story about two industrialists, Tom Watson and George Eastman.

 ​Society of the Genesee Says "Thank You"

George Eastman (1854) was born into an earlier generation than Thomas J. Watson Sr. (1874). George Eastman’s war was World War I. Tom Watson’s war was World War II. The Eastman Kodak Company founder was an icon within his Genesee Valley, an area that included the headquarters and home of Eastman Kodak situated in the valley’s nineteenth-century financial epicenter—Rochester, N.Y.

Long before Tom Watson was recognized within the business and social circles of New York, the Eastman Kodak industrialist had achieved both local and international name recognition through his company’s slogan for the Kodak Camera, “You press the button … we do the rest.” George Eastman paved the way for American corporate growth through massive international connections. Watson recognized him as one of the 19th Century’s greatest industrialists, internationalists and philanthropists.

While preparing for a flight over Rochester in a military aircraft, the army aviator told Mr. Eastman as he helped him with his parachute, “You pull the cord, the parachute does the rest." George Eastman and the Kodak Camera were household names.

Carl W. Ackerman writes in George Eastman that the Eastman Kodak founder was frequently approached to receive awards and honors that would have focused public attention on him, but invariably Eastman “escaped” these offers. His typical reply was this response to the Society of the Genesee, whose membership included most of his long-time friends and business associates:

I deeply appreciate the honor, and deeply regret that it is wholly impossible for me to accept such an invitation. … I should be embarrassed beyond measure on such an occasion and do not feel that I could go through the ordeal.

George Eastman’s biography, published in March 1930, reflects this humble man’s aversion—not to public speaking—but to public recognition of his business success and philanthropic activities. Published two years before his death, there is an unwritten epilog to his relationship with his peers in the valley.

In April 1930, Tom Watson took over as president of the Genesee Society and "The World's Greatest Salesman" went to work. He wanted this great industrialist to receive the public recognition of his peers that he so richly deserved. The press documents that Watson made a personal trip to Rochester and “prevailed upon him [Mr. Eastman] to accept the honor” from the “twelve-hundred-member society.” In June, the Society announced George Eastman’s acceptance.

The organization celebrated Watson’s “noteworthy achievement” in overcoming Mr. Eastman’s “ever-increasing desire to retire from the public eye,” because everyone wanted to say thank you for the employment he had created locally, nationally and internationally, and acknowledge the estimated $80 to $100 million he had donated to worthy projects in his city, state, country and world (equivalent to $1.3 to $1.6 billion in 2019 dollars). The praise at the dinner came from around the world.

​Tom Watson read a personal message from President Herbert Hoover. Owen D. Young, Chairman of the Board of General Electric, Emmanuel Grassi, Italian Consul General, Dr. Rush Rhees, President of the University of Rochester, Dr. Samuel Wesley Stratton, Chairman of the Board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Louis Wiley, Business Manager of the New York Times praised his business and philanthropic works. The French Ambassador and Swedish Foreign Minister awarded medals from their respective countries.

Many commented on his humility during their speeches. A few ended their speeches like the pastor of the local church that stood at the door of the Eastman Kodak factory, “If I have said anything to hurt the modesty of Mr. Eastman, I beg his pardon.” They feared embarrassing him. It must have been on everyone’s mind how the shy, retiring gentleman would handle the praise coming at him from all corners of the earth. At the end of the ceremony, an observant reporter captured a wonderful interaction between the two men, Eastman and Watson. He wrote:

At the conclusion of the addresses and presentations, Mr. Eastman, visibly affected by the tributes, leaned over and spoke briefly to Mr. Watson. Then Mr. Watson turned to the diners and said, "Mr. Eastman has asked me to thank you all for all the honors he has received here tonight. He says that it is one of the greatest nights of his life [emphasis added]."

With the help of Tom Watson, George Eastman savored the gratitude of his closest friends. ​

​ The "Thank You" Was Actually "Goodbye"

Mr. Eastman survived the “ordeal.” and it proved to be a timely event. Just a year later on March 14, 1932, after suffering from ill health and facing the possibility of years of “invalidism,” he took his own life … and the world mourned his passing.

But George Eastman’s enormous circle of friends and beneficiaries, if deprived of the chance to say goodbye did have the chance to say thank you—thanks to Tom Watson.

Editor's note: research and article by: Peter E. Greulich

George Eastman took his own life on March 14, 1932

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