Bio as in
The connections of Mr. Wilbur in the industrial, business and financial circles of Bethlehem are with those institutions whose part in the growth and upbuilding of the city has been important and constant. With many of these the Wilbur name has been long identified, and in a busy career embracing activity in manufacturing, banking, publishing and other fields of business he has ably upheld splendid family records and traditions.

Son of Warren A. and Sallie P. (Linderrmann) WiIbur, Robert Eldredge Wilbur was born in Bethlehem, July 17, 1881. He prepared for college at the Lawrenceville School. Lawrenceville, New Jersey. and Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, then entered Lehigh University, class of 1904. Alter taking two years in architectural courses in Harvard University, he returned to Bethlehem and at once engaged in business. The Bethlehem Foundry & Machine Company has occupied much of his time, and he is now (1919) assistant to the general manager of the plant. A strong. Vigorous enterprise, this concern during the World War rendered valuable service in the supply of war materials for the United States and her allies. Vast quantities of powder-making machinery were produced by the company. and in its plant was made the first successfully operating apparatus for the extraction of nitric acid from the air, in the United States, as well as some of the earliest machinery for the manufacture of mustard and other gases used in warfare. From 1907 to 1919 Mr. Wilbur was vice-president of the Lehigh Valley National Bank, and was elected president to succeed Gen. William E. Dostcr in the latter years. His long and close association with the important affairs of the institution made his succession to the executive office but a slight change, and his election was received with wide favor within the sphere of the bank's influence and among the banking fraternity. Mr. Wilbur is a director and executive officer in the following: President of the Globe Publishing Compan,. publishers of the Bethlehem Globe; president of the Citizens' Realty Company: treasurer of the Packer Coal Company; the same office in the Jefferson Coal Company; and is a director of the Sayre National Bank, of Sayre, Pennsylvania. In the organizations of business men of the city, formed for the promotion of the mutual interests of the members and the advancement of the commercial and industrial prosperity of the locality, he has always taken prominent part, and is now president of the South Side Business Men's Association; president of the Bethlehem Rotary Club. 1919-20; and vice-president of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce.

He holds the thirty-second degree in the Masonic order, is a member of Bethlehem Commandery, Bloomsburg Consistory; Rajah Temple. Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Reading. Pennsylvania: and Allentown Lodge No. 30, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His social organizations are the Northampton Club, the County Country Club of Northampton County, the Lehigh Country Club, the Engineers' Club of New York, the Manufacturer’s Club of Philadelphia. and the Livingston Club of Allentown. During his college years he was elected to the Sigma Phi fraternity. Mr. Wilbur is a trustee and secretary of the executive committee of St. Luke’s; Hospital. in whose welfare he has long taken deep interest, and is a liberal patron of all local charities. He is a vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal pro-Cathedral Church of the Nativity. His recreations are those of the out-of-doors; gunning, fishing, automobiling and motor boating. His residence is in the Fountain Hill District. and his summer home is "Sylvan Island" of the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence.

Mr. Wilbur married. February 11, 1905. Nina Vyse. daughter of Mrs. Nina Morgan Vyse, of New York City. Mrs. Wilbur is interested in St. Luke's Hospital through the work of the Ladies' Aid Society, and is a generous friend of the Children's Home. Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur are the parents of Nina Katherine, Sallie Lindermann, Warren Abbott 2nd and Gladys Edith.