"An American Banker in Paris" by William Engelbrecht and Karl Taylor

Elmwood is a small town in Illinois that had a population of 1,500 when Nelson Dean Jay was growing up. But the small-town boy went on to make a name for himself in Paris, France. “In my opinion, you simply can’t name anyone from central Illinois who had this much influence on America and the world, and (yet) no one knows about him,” said William Engelbrecht, the co-author of "The American Banker in Paris" along with Karl K. Taylor..“This isn’t a book about a bank or finance but about an interesting human being who came out of central Illinois,” said Engelbrecht, noting that after Jay graduated in 1905 from Knox College (located in nearby Galesburg). “After that, he got into finance. Then came World War I,” he said.Jay entered the U.S. Army and served Gen. Charles G. Dawes as general purchasing agent for the American Expeditionary Force where he later received a Distinguished Service Medal. No fewer than four countries decorated Jay for service during the war, said Engelbrecht.Following the war, Jay headed the Paris affiliate of the J.P. Morgan & Co. bank in Paris from 1920 to 1941 and then again after WWII.During the Roaring Twenties in Paris, Jay was a friend of Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel, and Gertrude Stein. During that era, Jay was described in the New York Times as “one of the most civilized and authentic Americans in Paris," said Engelbrecht.Jay was a member of the welcoming party for Charles Lindbergh when he made the first transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. “The J.P. Morgan Co. was one of the sponsors of the Lindbergh flight. The name on the business card that Lindbergh carried in his pocket during the flight was Nelson Dean Jay,” said Engelbrecht. Jay later criticized Lindbergh to his face, suggesting he reconsider some of his pro-German views, the author noted.Jay's personal life is also part of the story, said Engelbrecht. Jay met his wife, Anne, on a blind date. He told her of his plan to marry her that night. And he did. The marriage lasted 60 years.Along with helping Andre Citroen get the start he needed to become the largest automobile manufacturer in Europe, Jay also helped finance the work of his friend, (two-time) Nobel Prize winner Madame Marie Curie, the woman who laid the foundation for modern oncology, said Engelbrecht.