Horton Rorick
(1866-1946)
Attorney and Banker
Born on a farm in Morenci, Michigan, Rorick opened a law office after graduating from the University of Michigan Law School in 1892. In 1902, he joined his cousin, Celian Spitzer, at the banking firm of Spitzer & Co. In 1911, the firm became the Spitzer-Rorick Trust and Savings Bank, with Mr. Rorick as president. He was named chairman of the board in 1941, while his older son Marvin Rorick became president and younger son Ceilan H. Rorick became vice president. Rorick was a member of the Bankers Club of New York, Toledo Club, Toledo Chamber of Commerce, Toledo Country Club and the Masons.
Rorick was also very active in Palm Beach, Florida. Below is Rorick's obituary from the Palm Beach Post, written under the headline: Horton C. Rorick Dies At Toledo...
The death in Toledo, Ohio, where he was a leading banker, of Horton C. Rorick, former winter visitor and owner of much land in Palm Beach County, was announced Tuesday at the office of his local attorney, Manley P. Caldwell. He still had extensive holdings here.
Mr. Rorick, best known here for his work as chairman of the Bondholders Protective Committee during the years before the Everglade Drainage District began to emerge from the financial doldrums with settlement in 1941 of $17,000,000 indebtedness, died late Sunday in Toledo, where the funeral was to be held Tuesday afternoon.
He was still chairman of the board of directors of Spitzer-Rorick Trust and Savings Bank, of which a son, Marvin H. Rorick is president, and another son, C.H. Rorick, is vice president. Survivors also include a daughter, Mrs. P.P. Prudden, Toledo, who is well known in Palm Beach.
Mr. Rorick was active here in the boom of the 20’s, and as owner of the Jefferson Realty Co., was successful in litigation regarding the taxation of lands inside the meander line of Lake Okeechobee.
For more photographs of the Rorick home in Toledo's Old West End, click here.