About William Payne Whitney
William Payne Whitney was an American businessman and member of the influential Whitney family. He inherited a fortune and enlarged it through business dealings, then devoted much of his money and efforts to a wide variety of philanthropic purposes. His will included funds to expand the New York Hospital, now called NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic was established. After his mother's death and his father's remarriage (of which he apparently disapproved), Whitney essentially dropped the first name he shared with his father, and became commonly known simply as Payne Whitney. His will bequeathed more than $20 million to establish the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic at Cornell University's medical school, now called Weill Cornell Medicine, and New York Hospital, now New York–Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
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