Robert R. Young was a leader in America's finance and transportation. Born here in a house built by lawyer Temple Houston, son of Republic of Texas President Sam Houston, he came from a family rooted in the region: his grandfather was a traildriver and pioneer rancher, and his father was president of the first bank in Canadian. He was educated at Old Canadian Academy, Culver Military Academy, where he won highest honors, and the University of Virginia. In 1916 he married Anita O'Keeffe, sister of the painter Georgia O'Keeffe, and they had a daughter. Among his close friends was King Edward VIII of England. In the 1920s he served as assistant to the treasurer of General Motors, and in 1929 he made a fortune in the stock market. After years on Wall Street, he won acclaim in the financial world through a proxy battle to gain control of and modernize the New York Central Railroad, enlisting the help of Texas friends Clint Murchison and Sid Richardson. He retained banking interests in Canadian until 1939, remained a lifelong member of the Presbyterian church there, gave rare papers to the University of Texas, restored a historic local burial ground and named it Edith Ford Cemetery in honor of an aunt who reared him after his mother's early death, and maintained close ties through visits, hunting trips, and correspondence with people he had known in boyhood.