Carroll Livingston Wainwright

Carroll died peacefully on September 26 following an extraordinarily full life of over 90 years. He leaves his beloved wife of 68 years, Nina, his two sons, D. Walker Wainwright and Mark L. Wainwright and their respective spouses, Alice and Mimi, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Carroll (Sonny) Wainwright, Jr. was born in New York on December 28, 1925. At the early age of eight he demonstrated a love of adventure and independence by stowing away on the Queen of Bermuda. After service as a Marine Corps pilot during World War II, he graduated from Yale University (1949) and Harvard Law School (1952). Except for a brief period from 1959 to June 1960 when he served as Assistant General Counsel to Governor Nelson Rockefeller in Albany, he spent his entire legal career at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy where he became a partner in 1963. His practice focused on trusts, estates and not-for-profit institutions. He was significantly involved in Rockefeller family interests, including acting as the lead lawyer at the time of The Rockefeller Group's sale of Rockefeller Center to Mitsubishi Estate Company in 1989. His clients included many of New York's most prominent not-for-profit institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, the New York Community Trust, The Church Pension Group and Vassar College. He also served on the Boards of Trustees of many of these organizations, including The Boys' Club of New York whose Board he led from 1986 to 1994, the American Museum of Natural History where he was a Trustee from 1968 to 1994, Cooper Union where he was a Trustee from 1970 to 1995, the Edward John Noble Foundation, the United States Trust Company (1981 to 1998), the Church Pension Group, the University Council of Yale University and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He served on the Vestry of Trinity Church Wall Street (1983 to 1990) and St. Luke's Church in East Hampton, New York. From 1990 to 1997 he was an Adjunct Professor at The Washington and Lee University School of Law. He served as a member of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct from the Commission's inception in 1974 to 1983. He also served as Treasurer and Vice-President of the New York City Bar Association. One board colleague describes his service as being characterized by the sense of decency he brought and that his character and reputation were integral to the entity he was serving. He was President of the Maidstone Club in East Hampton, New York (1970-1973) and the Down Town Association (1985-1992). Through his service on the Board of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition he played an instrumental role in the reintroduction of the wolves to the Greater Yellowstone region despite his owning a cattle ranch in Montana's Centennial Valley. A skilled squash player, fisherman and duck hunter, he was always in excellent physical condition. He routinely walked up the forty-four stories to his office at Chase Manhattan Plaza to prepare for climbing and hiking vacations. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him and loved him.