It was 1926 and despite the full, heady swing of the “Jazz Age,” Delos Willard Cooke at age sixty-two was tired. His career as a railroad and steamship executive in New York was coming to a close. He, a nephew of banking mogul J.P. Morgan, could now look back with pride at his long career in transportation, which included being a top executive at the Cunard Steamship Line, vice president of the Erie Railroad, and federal fuel administrator for the state of New York.