William Barclay Harding (November 16, 1906 – June 30, 1967) was an American financier who served as chairman of the board of Smith, Barney and Co. until his death in 1967.
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Early life
Harding was born in New York City on November 16, 1906, and grew up in a townhouse on Fifth Avenue. He was the second son of four children born to James Horace Harding (1863–1929) and Dorothea Elizabeth Allen (née Barney) Harding (1871–1935). His siblings were banker Charles Barney Harding (who married Marion Choate, a daughter of Joseph H. Choate Jr.), Catherine (née Harding) Tailer (wife of polo player Lorillard Suffern Tailer), and the socialite and philanthropist Laura Barney Harding, who was a close friend of actress Katharine Hepburn. His father was a banker and financier who served as a director of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and the New York Municipal Railways System.
His maternal grandparents were Charles D. Barney and Laura (née Cooke) Barney, a daughter of Philadelphia financier Jay Cooke. His grandfather, a former member of his great-grandfather's firm, Jay Cooke & Company, founded Charles D. Barney & Co. in 1873 before retiring in 1907. The business continued under the same name, with his father helping to run the firm.
Harding prepared at the Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts, before attending Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He later became a trustee of Groton.