Edward Vassallo Hartford (1870-1922)

He was the second son of the owner of the A&P grocery store chain that for nearly an hundred years was America's largest chain of shops. On graduating from the Stevens Institute of Technology, his father invited him to join A&P but he declined and spent several years in France and India before returning home. Having become obsessed with automobiles he perfected the Truffault-Hartford shock absorber and made his own fortune as the founder and President of the Hartford Suspension Company. He was also later appointed Vice-President and Secretary of A&P. In private, he was an exceptional violinist and excelled in golf, ice skating, and yachting. 

In 1901, he married Henrietta, a grand-daughter of Moritz Pollitzer a Jewish émigré from Austria who settled in South Carolina. They were the parents of two children and from about 1910 they moved from Park Avenue in Manhattan to an estate in Deal, New Jersey. Rumor has that he was a Christian Scientist and when he fell ill he refused to see a doctor which resulted in his premature death. He left a fortune of $200-million to his wife who 15-years later married an Italian prince who was only two years older than their daughter.