Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 17, 1891, his father Samuel Wiggins Skinner was a member of the Harvard Class of 1880, his mother was Elizabeth Johnston (Jones) Skinner. Leaving college in the Harvard Class of 1915, he went into business in Cincinnati, with the Central Trust and Deposit Company. Early in 1917, as American participation in the war drew near, he gave up his position, and went to Newport News, Virginia, where he qualified for a pilot's license at the Curtiss School of Flying. Soon after the United States joined the Allies he applied for enlistment in the Lafayette Escadrille, and in May, 1917, sailed for France and began aviator's training at the French flying schools, the first of which was Avord and proceeded to Pau. In October Skinner was sent to Plessis-Belleville. Here on October 15, 1918, he was killed in an accident.