William Grigsby McCormick (June 3, 1851 – November 29, 1941) was an American businessman of the influential McCormick family in Chicago, who was a co-founder of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He also served as a Chicago alderman.
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Early life and education
William Grigsby McCormick was born June 3, 1851, in Chicago, Illinois to William Sanderson McCormick (1815–1865) of the McCormick family and Mary Ann Grigsby (1828–1878). His father managed finances for the family agricultural machinery business which became International Harvester until he died in an insane asylum in 1865. His mother then moved the family back to Baltimore, Maryland, near her Virginia family estate. After she was widowed, Mary had sold her share of the family business to his uncle Cyrus McCormick. Through his elder brother Robert Sanderson McCormick (1849–1919), he was a brother-in-law of Katherine Medill and the uncle of Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick.
Kappa Sigma
He attended the University of Virginia in 1868 and 1869, where he founded the Kappa Sigma fraternity with four other friends on December 10, 1869.
A plaque was later affixed to his 1869 room, which was numbered 46 East Lawn, where the first Kappa Sigma meeting was held.