David Granger, 99; Investor, N.Y. Stock Exchange Record Holder

David Granger, 99, who held a seat on the New York Stock Exchange for a record 76 years, died Friday of natural causes in Manhattan’s Mary Manning Walsh Home.

A Yale graduate who studied at Cambridge University in England, he joined his father’s Wall Street firm, Sulzbacher, Granger & Co. (now a part of Ingalls & Snyder), when he was 23.

He did so well as a conservative investor that he bought his seat on the stock exchange later that same year, 1926, for $143,000.

Through the 1929 crash, the Depression and many market ups and downs, the steadfast optimist and student of history remained confident that the world and the stock exchange would always get better.

Granger was on the four-man bobsled team that won a silver medal in the 1928 Olympics at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

He served in the Army during World War II, rising to the rank of major and earning the Order of the British Empire for helping supply Britain with war planes.

Although badly injured by a terrorist bomb while dining above Fraunces Tavern in 1975, Granger remained a lifelong booster of New York City. He served on the board of the Museum of the City of New York and as a trustee of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Granger also was a director of the English-Speaking Union, which promotes education around the world.