William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil

William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil, owner of The Biltmore Company, died on Tuesday November 10 2017 at his home in Asheville. He was 89 years old. After graduating from Harvard, Mr. Cecil had a successful career in finance in New York and Washington, D.C. with Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1960, he returned to Asheville in hopes of preserving his childhood home. Biltmore is the private estate of the late George Washington Vanderbilt III, Mr. Cecil’s grandfather. Mr. Cecil retired from the daily management of the company in 1995. But until his death, he served as chairman on the Board of Directors of The Biltmore Company. In addition, Mr. Cecil served on the board of directors of the Public Service Natural Gas Company, Carolina Motor Club, and the board of the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry. William A.V. Cecil was the youngest son of Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil and the Honorable John Francis Amherst Cecil, and the grandson of George W. Vanderbilt III, who built Biltmore House in the 1890s as the largest privately owned home in America. Mr. Cecil was born August 17, 1928 at his family home in Asheville. In 1957, he married Mary “Mimi” Ryan, a lawyer with the Wall Street firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Mr. Cecil is survived by his wife, Mary “Mimi” Ryan Cecil; his son, William A.V. “Bill” Cecil, Jr., and daughter-in-law Virginia “Ginger” Cecil; his daughter, Diana “Dini” Cecil Pickering, son-in-law George “Chuck” Pickering and brother George H.V. Cecil; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.