The Amazing Life & Times
of Austin T. Levy
A Documentary by Kenneth Proudfoot
Director of Photography - Jim Karpeichik
Austin T. Levy
(1880-1951)
Austin T. Levy was a much loved husband, friend,
leader, visionary, musician, and entrepreneur.
His God-given gifts for business, critical thinking,
and caring for others were well applied throughout
his lifetime, particularly before, during, and after World War I,
the Great Depression and World War II.
For every activity he took on, he studied the root cause
of the problems that prevented the most efficient use of
the resources available. He then focused his energies to find
workable and, ultimately, profitable and humane solutions.
In this 1944 photograph, the Duke of Windsor (center) talks with reporters during his visit to see Mr. Levy and the company he built -- Stillwater Worsted Company in Harrisville, RI. Mr. Levy is standing at the Duke's immediate right.
Introducing Austin T. Levy
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Watch the film trailer here:
https://vimeo.com/125949592 Purchase a copy of the film's DVD, including an additional hour of interviews and extras on the film's Facebook Shop page HERE: https://www.facebook.com/austintlevyfilm/shop Read more about Austin T. Levy and June Rockwell Levy on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/austintlevyfilm |
In 1909, Austin T. Levy, a 29 year old woolen commission agent from New York City, leased a small textile mill in Greenville, Rhode Island from the Waterhouse family. The mill had just 40 looms, but included dyeing and finishing facilities for the cloth the looms produced. This lease marked the founding of Levy’s Stillwater Worsted Mills and the beginning of an amazing transformation of how people worked, lived and prospered in the rural Town of Burrillville in northwest Rhode Island.
Over the next three decades, Levy would buy, build and operate a total of eleven mills in three states, employing more than 2,000 people. He pioneered paid two-week vacations, profit-sharing plans, and a generous employee stock ownership program. Most importantly, Levy recognized the inseparable relationship between the textile mills, workers and their families, and the survival and prosperity of the communities where his mills were sited. He realized that wage rates, even more than production and profits, were directly tied to the survival and prosperity of the local economy. With this thought always in the back of his mind, Levy kept his mills operating throughout the great depression of the 1930’s, one of the very few operators to do so. At other times, when weekly textile production increased due to improved technology and labor hours were necessarily reduced, Levy raised the hourly wage so his workers would continue to earn the same amount of weekly wages.
Levy readily recognized that his people were the key to the company’s profitable growth. He loved the people in his community and was always looking for opportunities to encourage and support his workers and their families to have better lives. He constantly praised his management team, line workers, and everyone else who helped make the company go. And he was happy to share his success with the people he worked with, ultimately selling the business to his employees, many who were already stockholders.
Austin T. Levy also had many other interests apart from the management of Stillwater Worsted Mills. He was an athlete and an avid tennis player, playing well into his sixties. He was an accomplished musician who excelled at the violin and viola. He loved music history and owned a 1709 Stradivarius. On Sunday evenings, his home became the setting where he played viola with a string quartet that included his wife, June Rockwell Levy, on violin. He further championed the creation of the Harrisville Glee Club and a dramatic society called The Village Players. Both groups practiced and performed at the 400-seat Assembly Theatre in Harrisville. Live theater continues to be produced and staged in this well-maintained venue.
Perhaps more amazing was Mr. Levy’s work on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
Introduced to the Bahamas through his wife’s family who owned a home in Nassau, Austin T. Levy encountered another project to challenge his business acumen. He found many of the island nation’s people, still subjects of the British Empire, with little or no access to fresh food, including vegetables, milk, eggs, and poultry.
After considerable study of the Bahamas soil, weather, and availability of farm equipment and other tools, he arranged the purchase of 2,000 acres on the island of Eleuthera in 1936. Levy then purchased and shipped earth moving and farm equipment to the island, carefully bred and shipped a herd of dairy cows from Harrisville, built chicken coops, and hired local people to plant, harvest, and process fresh food. Levy later ordered special boats built to ship his fresh milk, eggs, and ice cream to Nassau. These boats made two trips daily to the capital city on New Providence Island, arriving at Levy’s company pier and warehouse in Nassau Harbor. He built ten Milk Stands around the city where residents could purchase his fresh milk, eggs, and ice cream on a daily basis, creating what many consider to have been first chain of convenience stores in the Western Hemisphere.
Less known was Austin T. Levy’s interest and activities in Republican politics in Rhode Island. While a lifelong Republican, he did not get involved in Rhode Island Republican party activities until 1934. He was elected chairman of the Burrillville Republican Town Committee in 1936 and in 1938 managed the successful statewide campaign of William H. Vanderbilt for Rhode Island Governor (1939-41). Though he was well known in the northwestern part of the state, Levy was not that recognized in the rest of Rhode Island, particularly in the urban areas of Pawtucket, Providence, and Cranston. Nevertheless, he began asking for advice and feedback from his friends and business colleagues on whether he should run for the U.S. Senate. His opponent would be the then current governor, Democrat John O. Pastore. In the 1950 election, Levy won the vote in 21 of Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns, but Pastore won in the biggest cities and was elected Senator. The Levy’s returned to Nassau to rest and recuperate following the exhausting campaign. They soon returned to Rhode Island.
Austin T. Levy became ill soon after and passed away on November 24, 1951. His widow, June Rockwell Levy, continued her work in healthcare, public works, and the operation of their plantation in Hatchet Bay on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. After serving 51 years as board president of the Burrillville District Nursing Association (now WellOne), she passed away in 1971.
In the Town of Burrillville, Austin T. and June Rockwell Levy left an enduring impact on the villages of Harrisville and Pascoag with the construction and gift of the Burrillville Town Hall, Ninth District Court of Rhode Island, the Assembly Theatre, the Jesse M. Smith Memorial Library, U.S. Post Offices in Harrisville and Pascoag, and the Burrillville High School, among other projects they spearheaded, funded and supported. All of these buildings -- several now converted to meet changing community needs – are open and being used by the residents and visitors alike of the town of Burrillville.
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Kenneth Proudfoot, a teacher, writer and filmmaker, is currently writing and producing a
documentary, “The Amazing Life & Times of Austin T. Levy,” about socially conscious mill
man, Austin T. Levy (1880-1951), of Harrisville, RI.
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NOTE:
If anyone has photos, film clips, newspaper clippings, anecdotes, or other information about Mr. Levy, his wife June Rockwell Levy, or any of his mills in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Virginia, his work in the Bahamas, his music, or his political career, kindly contact the author at kennethproudfoot@hotmail.com, or 10 High Street, Wickford, RI 02852.