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Spencer Trask was an American financier, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. Beginning in the 1870s, Trask began investing and supporting entrepreneurs, including Thomas Edison's invention of the electric light bulb and his electricity network. In 1896 he reorganized the New York Times, becoming its majority shareholder and chairman.

Along with his financial acumen, Trask was a generous philanthropist, a leading patron of the arts, a strong supporter of education, and a champion of humanitarian causes. His gifts to his alma mater, Princeton University, set a lecture series in his name, that still continues to this day. He was also an initial trustee of the Teachers' College (now Teachers College, Columbia University) and St. Stephen's College.

Founded in 1900 by the financier Spencer Trask and his wife Katrina, herself a poet, Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400-acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.

Yaddo offers residencies to professional creative artists from all nations and backgrounds working in one or more of the following media: choreography, film, literature, musical composition, painting, performance art, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and video. Artists may apply individually or as members of collaborative teams of two or three persons. They are selected by panels of other professional artists without regard to financial means. Residencies last from two weeks to two months and include room, board, and studio.

Left without immediate heirs by the deaths of their four young children, the Trasks decided to bequeath their home in Saratoga Springs, New York, to future generations of writers, composers, painters, and other creative artists. In a vision, Katrina Trask saw generations of talented men and women yet unborn walking the lawns of Yaddo, "creating, creating, creating."

The results of the Trasks' legacy have been historic. John Cheever once wrote that the "forty or so acres on which the principal buildings of Yaddo stand have seen more distinguished activity in the arts than any other piece of ground in the English-speaking community and perhaps the world." Collectively, artists who have worked at Yaddo have won 64 Pulitzer Prizes, 27 MacArthur Fellowships, 61 National Book Awards, 24 National Book Critics Circle Awards, 108 Rome Prizes, 49 Whiting Writers' Awards, a Nobel Prize (Saul Bellow, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976), and countless other honors. Many books by Yaddo authors have been made into films. Visitors from Cheever's day include Milton Avery, James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, Aaron Copland, Philip Guston, Patricia Highsmith, Langston Hughes, Ted Hughes, Alfred Kazin, Ulysses Kay, Jacob Lawrence, Sylvia Plath, Katherine Anne Porter, Mario Puzo, Clyfford Still, and Virgil Thomson.

Mr. Spencer Trask was born in 1844 to Alanson and Sarah (Marquand) Trask in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a direct descendant of Captain William Trask, a leader in the formation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After graduating from Princeton University in 1866, Spencer Trask joined his uncle to form the investment firm Trask & Brown, which became Spencer Trask & Company in 1881. Mr. Trask became one of New York's leading citizens and one of the country's best known bankers. He was married in 1874 to Miss Katrina Nichols, the love of his life,a famous author of the time. He persisted in his optimistic support of artists and entrepreneurs, despite misfortunes that would set back most ordinary people. The Trasks' four children died within a single week from various illnesses and Katrina became an invalid as a result. In an automobile accident in Boston late in his life, the glass windshield injured Trask's eye so seriously that surgeons had to remove it to save the sight of her other eye. Mr. Trask died in a train accident on New Year's Eve in 1909.

Reference: Wikipedia

(There is speculation that he may have been murdered because he was the only one who died and he did not have to be on that train as his presence was not required at the meeting to which he was headed.)

Barrio Chino is a unique place in Panama City. The Chinese population in Panama city is the largest in Latin America, and the Chinese history in Panama is fascinating and surprising to the visitor. Barrio Chino provides a rich experience in a country that prides itself upon its diversity, and the story of the Chinese in Panama is an essential thread to understand the country at the heart of global culture and trade.
Next to Barrio Chino, Casco Viejo is growing. Its restoration puts pressure on Barrio Chino to grow, and pressures leaders to invest creativity in Barrio Chino. What can be done with the area? How should it grow? What are the issues that will dictate growth?
The purpose of this document is to provide an analysis and recommendations for the planning of Barrio Chino to address the questions above. Discussion centered upon creating a design for the neighborhood, but the team feels it is too early in the process to make plans for the area. It will be important to establish relations with members of the community to create a shared vision for Barrio Chino. These mutual goals between the government and the neighborhood will enable a rehabilitation of the Barrio Chino to avoid nostalgia, address the needs of the coming generations that are leaving Barrio Chino, and Panama and challenge the community to invest in its historic place. A mutual vision will create a sense of inclusivity that will make people want to live in Barrio Chino, and it can change the perception of the area as a first step to regrowth.
An interdisciplinary team of students and faculty from Cal Poly Pomona examined Barrio Chino June of 2007, returning to Los Angles to document our study. The team used qualitative methods including archival research, community interviews and interviews with local leaders and experts. The team visited Barrio Chino during different times of the day throughout our stay. We did not enter into the area in the evenings; all information gathered about night is secondhand.
Four sections structure the analysis, following the framework used for Casco Viejo: revival of the community, revival of the economy and tourism, revival of the infrastructure and revival of the architecture. Each section begins with a summary of the analysis for that topic, and the summary ends with action items to pursue to address the research that follows in the section.
The important and immediate needs include the leaders of Barrio Chino and government representatives creating a productive working relationship. This relationship should establish the ability for these groups to create a plan addressing the social, economic, political and physical issues in Barrio Chino.
If left unaddressed, the environmental conditions in this area will impede any development. The pollution is a threat to human health and flooding will damage property investments. Improving environmental conditions will raise the value of the area, and be a demonstration of a commitment to the future of Barrio Chino.
Creating a positive socio-political environment and functioning city services and maintenance should entice private investment as Barrio Chino has unique and desirable resrouces.