The club, founded by Henry Clay Frick and composed of wealthy Pittsburgh industrialists including Carnegie, Andrew Mellon and Philander Knox, owned the South Fork Dam which collapsed on May 31, 1889, causing the Johnstown Flood. Pitcairn was responsible for sending the first relief train to Johnstown to assist flood victims. He was one of the Directors of the Carnegie Public Library in Pittsburgh. A Republican, Pitcairn served as a Presidential Elector for Pennsylvania in 1904. Retirement and death While serving as superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Pitcairn was instrumental in implementing a policy that every worker who had been with the company at least 25 years should be pensioned upon reaching the age of 70. He was to become the first recipient of this policy; when he reached 70, President A.J. Cassatt required that Pitcairn, then serving as Resident Assistant to the President, retire. From this point on, Pitcairn's health declined, and in 1909 he died from a "general breakdown". References External links Pitcairn's testimony at the PRR's Johnstown Flood inquiry Scotland's mark on America - Scots in banking, finance, insurance and railroads 1836 births 1909 deaths 19th-century American railroad executives Andrew Carnegie Businesspeople from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Republicans People from Johnstone Pitcairn family Scottish emigrants to the United States