Senior partner of a securities firm and part-owner of a champion racehorse. Fund at The Trust supports literacy in New York public schools.
Christopher J. Devine (1905-1963)
Bonaventura Elizabeth Kirby Devine (1903-1985)
Vice president of a securities trading house by age 25, owner of his own firm at age 28, Christopher Joseph Devine’s career was on a fast track—both in and outside the office. In 1955, he and his partners paid about $1.25 million for a three-year-old colt named Nashua, voted the 1955 American Horse of the Year.
Christopher was born in New Jersey on February 28, 1905, to Christopher J. and Elizabeth Devine. He was enrolled at Seton Hall College in South Orange, New Jersey, when at age 19, he left to take a $25-a-week job with C. F. Childs & Co., a leader in government bonds. At his request, he was given a job in the trading room and within a year, was earning $90 a week. When offered a raise, he quit to join another firm at a lower salary to gain experience. In 1930, he returned to C. F. Childs as a vice president.
In 1933, he established C. J. Devine & Co., taking in six partners. It grew quickly and soon had branch offices in four other cities. He became an important underwriter and distributor of municipal bonds.
Bonaventura Elizabeth Kirby was born March 24, 1903, in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to James Kirby and the former Nellie Norton. She and Christopher were married in 1927 and raised their five sons and four daughters in West Orange, New Jersey.
In the 1950s, Christopher began entering horses in many leading races under colors of his Boncrist Stables in Newton, New Jersey. Then along came Nashua. Christopher and a group of investors purchased the three-year-old winner of both the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, and a close second in the Kentucky Derby to Swaps, an upstart with a modest pedigree. At the end of the 1956 season, after 30 career races with a 22-4-1 record, Nashua was retired to Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. At the time, Nashua was the sport’s all-time money leader. As successful as he was on the racetrack, Nashua was equally great as a sire at Spendthrift Farm. His offspring include 85 stakes winners.
Away from the sporting world, Christopher supported many Catholic organizations and causes. He was a trustee of St. John’s Roman Catholic Church and was named a Knight of Malta by the Pope. In 1949, he led a fundraising campaign for Our Lady of Victory Church in the Wall Street area, and in 1959, he contributed a major sum to New York University to establish a financial research department. He was a director of the United Hospital Fund of New York and trustee chairman of St. Clare’s Hospital, a Catholic hospital in Hell’s Kitchen, as well as treasurer of People-to-People Inc., which was dedicated to improving personal relationships through sports.
On May 10, 1963, he was riding home to New Jersey in a taxi when he died of a heart attack, having suffered two previous heart attacks. He was 58. Government securities dealers nationwide suspended trading on May 11 for two minutes in his memory. Bonventura died in March 1985.
Christopher and Bonaventura’s fund in The Trust has helped improve reading instruction in New York’s public schools.