Karl Behr

American tennis player and banker

Karl Behr

Full name| Karl Howell Behr
Country (sports)|  United States
Born| (1885-05-30)May 30, 1885
New York City, New York, United States
Died| October 15, 1949(1949-10-15) (aged 64)
Morristown, New Jersey, United States
Plays| Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
College| Yale and the Lawrenceville school
Int. Tennis HoF| 1969 (member page)
Singles
Grand Slam singles results
Wimbledon| 4R (1907)
US Open| F (1906AC)
Doubles
Grand Slam doubles results
Wimbledon| F (1907AC)
Team competitions
Davis Cup| F (1907)

Karl Howell Behr (May 30, 1885 – October 15, 1949) was an American tennis player and banker. He was also a survivor of the sinking of RMS Titanic.

## Personal life

[edit]

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Karl Howell Behr was born the son of Herman and Grace (née Howell) Behr of New York City. He was the brother of Max H. Behr, the famous golfer. Behr was educated at Lawrenceville School and attended Yale University and was admitted to the bar association in 1910. While at Yale he also played on the ice hockey team for three years.

Behr married Helen Monypeny Newsom on March 1, 1913 at the Church of the Transfiguration in New York City. The couple had four children together: Karl H. Behr Jr. (1914–2002), Peter Howell Behr (1915–1997), James Howell Behr (1920–1976), and Sally Howell Behr (later Mrs. Samuel Leonard Pettit) (1928–1995). After her husband's death, Helen remarried one of his best friends and former tennis partners, Dean Mathey.

Behr gave up a career in law, instead turning to banking. He was vice-president of Dillon, Read & Co. and sat on the board of the Fisk Rubber Company, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and the National Cash Register Company. At the time of his death, he was a director of the Interchemical Corporation, the Behr-Manning Corporation of Troy, New York, and the Witherbee Sherman Corporation. His clubs included the Downtown, University and Yale, and the St. Nicholas Society.

He was a cousin of fellow tennis player Allen Behr.[1]

## Tennis career

[edit]

Behr was also a well known lawn tennis player, playing on the United States Davis Cup team in 1907. Behr, with Beals Wright, was also runner up in the men's doubles at the 1907 Wimbledon Championships, losing to Norman Brookes and Tony Wilding in three sets, 4–6, 4–6, 2–6.[2]

He reached the No. 3 U.S. ranking in both 1907 and 1914.[3]

Behr continued his tennis career after the sinking of Titanic (see below), and was named to the 1914 U.S. Davis Cup team along with fellow survivor R. Norris Williams. However, Behr, who played on the 1907 U.S. Davis Cup, did not play in the 1914 Davis Cup Challenge Round against Australasia at Forest Hills. In 1915 he defeated Maurice McLoughlin, the world's no. 1 ranked player at the time,[4] in straight sets, 8–6, 7–5, 7–5 to win the tournament in Seabright, New Jersey.[5]

## Grand Slam finals

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### Doubles (1 runner-up)

[edit]

Result  | Year  | Championship  | Surface  | Partner  | Opponents  | Score

|
|
|
|
|
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Loss | 1907 | Wimbledon | Grass |  Beals Wright |  Norman Brookes
Anthony Wilding | 4–6, 4–6, 2–6

## RMS Titanic

[edit]

In 1912, Behr booked first class passage on board RMS Titanic in pursuit of fellow first class passenger Helen Newsom, who was a friend of Behr's sister.[6] Behr occupied cabin C-148 during the voyage.

Sometime after the ship hit the iceberg, Behr met up with Helen, her mother and stepfather, Richard and Sallie Beckwith; and another couple, Edwin and Gertrude Kimball, on the boat deck. Under the watch of Third Officer Herbert Pitman, the group gathered around lifeboat 5. Gertrude Kimball asked J. Bruce Ismay if all of their group could enter the boat. Ismay replied, "Of course, madam, every one of you."[7] As a result, Behr and his friends were rescued in lifeboat 5, the second boat to leave the ship. After the rescue, several newspapers reported that Behr had proposed to Miss Newsom in the lifeboat.[8]

While aboard the rescue ship, RMS Carpathia, Behr and several other passengers, including Molly Brown, organized and formed a committee to honor the bravery of Carpathia's captain, Arthur Rostron, and the ship's crew. They later presented an inscribed silver cup to Rostron, and medals to each of the ship's 320 crew.

## Death

[edit]

Karl Behr died of cancer at his home on 15 October 1949, aged 64.[9] He was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown, New Jersey. He was posthumously honored by the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1969.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Anderson, Frank T. (March 10, 1929). "Another Behr on the Lawn Tennis Trail". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Vol. 89, no. 68\. p. C3. Retrieved May 22, 2024 - via Newspapers.com. "First, there was Karl Behr, fiery and temperamental national doubles champion with Theodore Roosevelt Pell, and one of the greatest and most colorful players that ever graced the courts. Then came Allen Behr, Karl's cousin."
2. ^ Davis Cup – Players
3. ^ United States Lawn Tennis Association (1972). Official Encyclopedia of Tennis (First Edition), p. 409-410.
4. ^ Collins, Bud (2010). The Bud Collins History of Tennis (2nd ed.). [New York]: New Chapter Press. p. 716\. ISBN 978-0942257700.
5. ^ "M'Loughlin Loses to Karl H. Behr". New York Times. August 14, 1915. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
6. ^ Wertheim, L. Jon (April 2, 2012). "Unsinkable". Sports Illustrated. Vol. 116, no. 14.
7. ^ Mr Karl Howell Behr
8. ^ Miss Helen Monypeny Newsom
9. ^ "One Ship, Two Men, 1,517 Deaths". USTA. March 26, 2012. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2012.

## External links

[edit]

* Karl Behr at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
* Karl Behr at the Association of Tennis Professionals
* Karl Behr at the International Tennis Federation
* Karl Behr at the Davis Cup

* v
* t
* e

Titanic

* First class facilities
* Second and Third class facilities
* Grand Staircase
* Animals aboard

Sinking|

* Iceberg that sank the Titanic
* Changes in safety practices
* Lifeboats
* Lifeboat No. 1
* British inquiry
* United States inquiry
* Wreck of the Titanic
* Legends and myths
* Conspiracy theories

Officers|

* Edward J. Smith (Captain)
* Henry Tingle Wilde (Chief Officer)
* William McMaster Murdoch (First Officer)
* Charles H. Lightoller (Second Officer)
* Herbert Pitman (Third Officer)
* Joseph G. Boxhall (Fourth Officer)
* Harold G. Lowe (Fifth Officer)
* James Paul Moody (Sixth Officer)
* Hugh McElroy (Chief Purser)
* Joseph Bell (Chief Engineer)

Crew members|

* Frederick Barrett
* Harold Bride
* William Denton Cox
* Sid Daniels
* Frank Oliver Evans
* Frederick Fleet
* Luigi Gatti
* Robert Hichens
* Violet Jessop
* Archie Jewell
* Charles Joughin
* Reginald Lee
* Evelyn Marsden
* William Mintram
* Jack Phillips
* Frank Winnold Prentice
* Arthur John Priest
* George Symons

Musicians|

* Wallace Hartley
* John Wesley Woodward

Passengers|

| Fatalities|

* Allison family
* Thomas Andrews
* John Jacob Astor IV
* David John Bowen
* Archibald Butt
* Thomas Byles
* Roderick Chisholm
* Walter Donald Douglas
* Annie Funk
* Jacques Futrelle
* Sidney Leslie Goodwin
* Benjamin Guggenheim
* John Harper
* Henry B. Harris
* Wallace Hartley
* Charles Melville Hays
* Ann Elizabeth Isham
* Edward Austin Kent
* Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche
* Francis Davis Millet
* Harry Markland Molson
* Clarence Moore
* Eino Viljami Panula
* W. T. Stead
* Ida Straus
* Isidor Straus
* John B. Thayer
* Frank M. Warren Sr.
* George D. Wick
* George Dunton Widener
* Harry Elkins Widener
* Duane Williams
* George Henry Wright

|

Survivors|

* Rhoda Abbott
* Trevor Allison
* Lillian Asplund
* Madeleine Astor
* Ruth Elizabeth Becker
* Lawrence Beesley
* Karl Behr
* Dickinson Bishop
* Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson
* Elsie Bowerman
* Francis Browne
* Margaret "Molly" Brown
* Helen Churchill Candee
* Charlotte Drake Cardeza
* Lucile Carter
* Gladys Cherry
* Millvina Dean
* Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon
* Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
* Dorothy Gibson
* Archibald Gracie IV
* Frank John William Goldsmith
* Edith Haisman
* Henry S. Harper
* Eva Hart
* Margaret Bechstein Hays
* Masabumi Hosono
* J. Bruce Ismay
* Eleanor Ileen Johnson
* Louise Kink
* Louise Laroche
* Margaret Mannion
* Michel Marcel Navratil
* Alfred Nourney
* Arthur Godfrey Peuchen
* Jane Quick
* Winnifred Quick
* Edith Rosenbaum
* Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes
* Emily Ryerson
* Agnes Sandström
* Beatrice Sandström
* Frederic Kimber Seward
* Eloise Hughes Smith
* Douglas Spedden
* Jack Thayer
* Marian Thayer
* Barbara West
* Ella Holmes White
* Eleanor Elkins Widener
* R. Norris Williams
* Marie Grice Young

Monuments
and memorials|

| Australia|

* Bandstand (Ballarat)

|

United Kingdom|

* Engine Room Heroes (Liverpool)
* Engineers (Southampton)
* Musicians (Southampton)
* Titanic (Belfast)
* Orchestra (Liverpool)

United States|

* Straus Park (New York City)
* Titanic (New York City)
* Titanic (Washington, D.C.)
* Butt–Millet Memorial Fountain (Washington, D.C.)

Popular culture
(cultural legacy)|

| Books|

* The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility (1898)
* A Night to Remember (1955)
* Polar the Titanic Bear (1995)

|

Films|

* Saved from the Titanic (1912)
* In Nacht und Eis (1912)
* La hantise (1912)
* Atlantic (1929)
* Atlantik (1929)
* Titanic (1943)
* Titanic (1953)
* A Night to Remember (1958)
* The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
* Raise the Titanic (1980)
* Secrets of the Titanic (1986)
* Titanica (1992)
* Titanic (1997)
* The Chambermaid on the Titanic (1997)
* The Legend of the Titanic (1999)
* Titanic: The Legend Goes On (2000)
* The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg (2000)
* Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)
* Tentacolino (2004)
* Titanic II (2010)
* The Six (2021)
* Titanic 666 (2022)
* Unsinkable (2024)

Television|

* "A Night to Remember" (1956)
* S.O.S. Titanic (1979)
* Titanic: The Complete Story (1994)
* Titanic (1996 miniseries)
* No Greater Love (1996)
* "A Flight to Remember" (Futurama) (1999)
* "The Mutants Are Revolting" (Futurama) (2010)
* Titanic (2012 miniseries)
* Titanic: Blood and Steel (2012)
* Saving the Titanic (2012)
* Titanic: The Aftermath (2012)

Theater|

* The Berg (1929)
* The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960 musical)
* Titanic (1974)
* Titanic (1997 musical)

Music|

* "The Titanic (It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down)" (folk song)
* The Sinking of the Titanic (music composition)
* Titanic (soundtrack album)
* Back to Titanic (soundtrack album)
* "My Heart Will Go On" (song)
* "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (song)
* Titanique (musical parody)
* "Dance Band on the Titanic" (song)
* "Titanic" (song)
* Titanic Requiem (music composition)
* "Tempest" (song)
* Titanic Rising (album)

Video games|

* Search for the Titanic (1989)
* Titanic: Adventure Out of Time (1996)
* Titanic: Honor and Glory (TBA)

Museums
and exhibitions|

* SeaCity Museum (Southampton)
* Titanic Museum (Branson, Missouri)
* Titanic Museum (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee)
* Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (Halifax)
* Titanic Belfast

Places|

* Titanic (Canada)
* Titanic Canyon
* Titanic Quarter, Belfast
* Cape Race, Newfoundland
* Fairview Lawn Cemetery
* Mount Olivet Cemetery (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
* Arrol Gantry
* Titanic, Oklahoma

Related|

| Ships|

* RMS Baltic
* RMS Olympic
* HMHS Britannic
* SS Mount Temple
* RMS Carpathia
* SS Californian
* CS Mackay-Bennett
* SS Birma
* SS Frankfurt
* Replica Titanic
* Titanic II
* Romandisea Titanic

|

Law|

* RMS Titanic Maritime Memorial Act
* Agreement Concerning the Shipwrecked Vessel RMS Titanic

Others|

* White Star Line
* David Blair
* James Cameron
* Harold Cottam
* Herbert Haddock
* Stanley Lord
* Arthur Rostron
* Titanic Historical Society
* Titanic International Society
* Encyclopedia Titanica
* Halomonas titanicae
* Women and children first
* Robert Ballard
* La Circassienne au Bain
* Titan submersible
* implosion
* The Big Piece

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Members of the International Tennis Hall of Fame

Men|

| Master players|

* Manuel Alonso Areizaga
* James Anderson
* Mal Anderson
* Bunny Austin
* Wilfred Baddeley
* Jean Borotra
* John Bromwich
* Norman Brookes
* Jacques Brugnon
* Clarence Clark
* Henri Cochet
* Ashley Cooper
* Jim Courier
* Jack Crawford
* Owen Davidson
* Sven Davidson
* Jaroslav Drobný
* Pierre Etchebaster
* Neale Fraser
* Chuck Garland
* Andrés Gimeno
* Arthur Gore
* Bryan Grant
* Clarence Griffin
* Lew Hoad
* Harry Hopman
* Frederick Hovey
* Karel Koželuh
* René Lacoste
* Herbert Lawford
* Gene Mako
* Ken McGregor
* Robert Lindley Murray
* Hans Nüsslein
* Alex Olmedo
* Manuel Orantes
* Gerald Patterson
* Theodore Pell
* Fred Perry
* Tom Pettitt
* Adrian Quist
* Ernest Renshaw
* William Renshaw
* Mervyn Rose
* Frank Sedgman
* Pancho Segura
* Gottfried von Cramm
* Anthony Wilding

|

Players|

* Fred Alexander
* Wilmer Allison
* Karl Behr
* Don Budge
* Oliver Campbell
* Malcolm Greene Chace
* Joseph Clark
* William Clothier
* Dwight F. Davis
* John Doeg
* Laurence Doherty
* Reginald Doherty
* James Dwight
* Bob Falkenburg
* Pancho Gonzales
* Harold Hackett
* Joe Hunt
* Francis Hunter
* Bill Johnston
* Jack Kramer
* William Larned
* Art Larsen
* George Lott
* Maurice McLoughlin
* Frank Parker
* Vincent Richards
* Bobby Riggs
* Ted Schroeder
* Richard Sears
* Frank Shields
* Henry Slocum
* Bill Talbert
* Bill Tilden
* John Van Ryn
* Ellsworth Vines
* Holcombe Ward
* Watson Washburn
* Malcolm Whitman
* R. Norris Williams
* Sidney Wood
* Robert Wrenn
* Beals Wright

Recent players|

* Andre Agassi
* Arthur Ashe
* Boris Becker
* Björn Borg
* Michael Chang
* Jimmy Connors
* Rick Draney
* Stefan Edberg
* Roy Emerson
* David Hall
* Lleyton Hewitt
* Yevgeny Kafelnikov
* Jan Kodeš
* Gustavo Kuerten
* Goran Ivanišević
* Rod Laver
* Ivan Lendl
* John McEnroe
* Chuck McKinley
* Frew McMillan
* Don McNeill
* Gardnar Mulloy
* Ilie Năstase
* John Newcombe
* Yannick Noah
* Rafael Osuna
* Leander Paes
* Budge Patty
* Nicola Pietrangeli
* Pat Rafter
* Dennis Ralston
* Tony Roche
* Andy Roddick
* Ken Rosewall
* Marat Safin
* Pete Sampras
* Manuel Santana
* Dick Savitt
* Vic Seixas
* Stan Smith
* Randy Snow
* Michael Stich
* Fred Stolle
* Tony Trabert
* Guillermo Vilas
* Mats Wilander
* Todd Woodbridge
* Mark Woodforde

Women|

| Master players|

* Daphne Akhurst
* Blanche Bingley
* Dorothy Bundy Cheney
* Charlotte Cooper
* Thelma Coyne Long
* Françoise Dürr
* Marion Jones Farquhar
* Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling
* Suzanne Lenglen
* Simonne Mathieu
* Kathleen McKane Godfree
* Elisabeth Moore
* Angela Mortimer
* Betty Nuthall
* Nancy Richey
* Ellen Roosevelt
* Dorothy Round
* Elizabeth Ryan
* Margaret Scriven
* Eleonora Sears
* Bertha Townsend
* Lesley Turner Bowrey
* Marie Wagner
* Nancye Wynne Bolton

|

Players|

* Juliette Atkinson
* Maud Barger-Wallach
* Pauline Betz
* Molla Bjurstedt Mallory
* Louise Brough
* Mary Browne
* Mabel Cahill
* Maureen Connolly
* Lottie Dod
* Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers
* Shirley Fry
* Althea Gibson
* Ellen Hansell
* Darlene Hard
* Doris Hart
* Ann Haydon Jones
* Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman
* Helen Hull Jacobs
* Alice Marble
* Sarah Palfrey Cooke
* Helen Wills

Recent players|

* Tracy Austin
* Maria Bueno
* Jennifer Capriati
* Rosemary Casals
* Kim Clijsters
* Lindsay Davenport
* Chris Evert
* Gigi Fernández
* Evonne Goolagong Cawley
* Steffi Graf
* Justine Henin
* Martina Hingis
* Billie Jean King
* Monique Kalkman-Van Den Bosch
* Li Na
* Hana Mandlíková
* Conchita Martínez
* Amélie Mauresmo
* Martina Navratilova
* Jana Novotná
* Margaret Osborne duPont
* Mary Pierce
* Gabriela Sabatini
* Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
* Monica Seles
* Pam Shriver
* Margaret Smith Court
* Helena Suková
* May Sutton
* Chantal Vandierendonck
* Esther Vergeer
* Virginia Wade
* Natasha Zvereva

Contributors|

* Russ Adams
* George Adee
* Lawrence Baker
* John Barrett
* Nick Bollettieri
* Vic Braden
* Jane Brown Grimes
* Butch Buchholz
* Philippe Chatrier
* Gianni Clerici
* Bud Collins
* Joseph Cullman
* Allison Danzig
* Mike Davies
* Herman David
* Donald Dell
* Cliff Drysdale
* Steve Flink
* David Gray
* Gustaf V
* Derek Hardwick
* Gladys Heldman
* William Hester
* Lamar Hunt
* Nancy Jeffett
* Robert Walter Johnson
* Perry T. Jones
* Robert J. Kelleher
* Peachy Kellmeyer
* Al Laney
* Alastair Martin
* Dan Maskell
* William McChesney Martin
* Mark McCormack
* Julian Myrick
* Arthur Nielsen
* Original 9
* Mary Ewing Outerbridge
* Brad Parks
* Charlie Pasarell
* Gene Scott
* Lance Tingay
* Ted Tinling
* Ion Țiriac
* Brian Tobin
* Jimmy Van Alen
* Dennis Van der Meer
* Walter Clopton Wingfield

Portal:

* Tennis

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* United States

Other|

* SNAC

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