Thomas Lamont—a Harvard graduate who took a special interest in the Business School—was an influential New York banker, and was therefore in a position to help establish both of the School's first two chaired professorships.

President Lowell personally acknowledged Lamont's efforts in 1915, when James J. Hill announced his intention to double the endowment of the chair that bore his name. "Your telephone call this morning brought a great flash of joy into this office," Lowell wrote in a letter to Lamont, "and I wish you could have seen Gay's delight when I ran downstairs and told him. Both the gift and the liberality of its terms are just what we need. I have no doubt that in a few years Transportation will absorb all the income from the two hundred and fifty thousand, but at the moment it is a great advantage to be able to use a part of it for the general needs of the School."