San Francisco County
Biographies
HERBERT
EDWARD LAW, F.C.S.
HERBERT EDWARD
LAW, F.C.S., of London, Vice President of The Viavi
Company, Inc.., and president and treasurer of the Anglo-=American Securities
Company of San Francisco, California, was born near Sheffield, England, December
5, 1864, the son of Crossley Law and Rebecca (Brown)
Law, and in 1866 came with his parents to the United States, settling in the
city of Chicago.
There he
attended the public schools and the German-American Institute, became
proficient in German and an instructor in the Institute. Soon afterwards he was
made confidential secretary of E. C. Potter, manager of the North Chicago
Rolling Mills, out of which the United States Steel Corporation was developed.
He joined his
brother, Hartland Law, in selling subscription books and in 1884, under the
firm name of Law, King & Law, they represented the
Western Publishing House of Chicago in San Francisco. In 1886 they purchased a
controlling interest in the Western Publishing House, but disposed of it soon
afterwards and returned the same year to San Francisco. Here they began the
development of the Viavi System of Treatment. Mr. Law
has been largely the organizing power in the Viavi business, than which he deemed no other of his
numerous interests more important nor more essentially a part of himself. He has been the animating force, combining and directing the
separate efforts, great or small, of every individual ever connected with the
organization into one consistent result. One of the unique features of the Viavi business is the method of sale. It is based wholly on
personal contact, a principle which is now almost universal in all lines of
business. The Laws have developed an organization in which thousands have
received practical training and in which more than 10,000 active workers are at
the present time engaged in spreading the Viavi
teachings and selling the Viavi Preparations in more
than twenty different countries.
Mr. Law’s
activities have been important in other fields. It has been said that, with his
brother Dr. Hartland Law, he has been the largest real estate operator in San
Francisco during the past twenty years. No individual has built so many
high-class buildings in so short a time. He has touched no property which he
has not improved. His first operations were in the region northwest of Van Ness
avenue and Vallejo street. Coming to the downtown
section, among others he has owned and improved property at Mission and Main
streets, Mission and Annie streets, Mission and New Montgomery streets, and then
on Market street, near Third street, where he built the splendid Monadnock building.
Just before the
fire, with his brother he bought the Fairmont Hotel. Restoring it after the
fire cost $1,840,000. The reconstruction of the Fairmont gave direction and
emphasis to that fine thing we now know as the San Francisco spirit. In the
three years immediately after the fire $7,000,000 passed through his office in
rebuilding, exchanging and restoring to sound position
his and his brother’s holdings.
After leasing
the Fairmont to the Palace Hotel Company the Law brothers exchanged it back to
Mrs. Herman Oelrichs, securing through the exchange,
forty acres of water front property adjoining the military reservation of Fort
Mason. Potentially valuable, it was inaccessible. The completion of the tunnel
now authorized through Fort Mason property will make it accessible and they are
planning to
make it the site of a great rail and ocean terminal.
Mr. Law acted as
chairman of the Street Changes, General Widening and Grading of Streets
Committee, whose work complemented the Burnham plan for a San Francisco
splendid and beautiful.
In 1910 he
negotiated with the Chinese Government on behalf of the Western Steel
Corporation, of which he was then president, the largest contract China had
made up to that time. He was energetically interested in the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition and he and his brother made possible the use of the
Harbor View region as a part of the site.
He was for many
years a director of the Merchants’ Association, is a director of the Merchants’
Association, is a director of Wells-Fargo Nevada National Bank and other large
corporations; is a Fellow of the Chemical Society of London, a member of the
Union League Club, and has been an extensive traveler.
Transcribed by Gloria (Wiegner) Lane.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 347,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2007 Gloria
Lane.