Succeeded by Chester Bowles Parents Clarence Dillon Preceded by Christian A. Herter | Spouse Susan Sage (m. 1983) Name C. Dillon | |
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Died January 10, 2003, NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital Children Joan Dillon, Phyllis Ellsworth Dillon Colins Similar People Clarence Dillon, John F Kennedy, Joan Dillon, Robert Rubin, Robert F Kennedy | ||
Clarence Douglas Dillon (born Clarence Douglass Dillon; August 21, 1909 – January 10, 2003) was an American diplomat and politician, who served as U.S. Ambassador to France (1953–1957) and as the 57th Secretary of the Treasury (1961–1965). He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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Life and career
Dillon was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the son of American parents, Anne McEldin (Douglass) and financier Clarence Dillon. Although Dillon grew up as a patrician, his paternal grandfather, Samuel Lapowski, was a poor Jewish immigrant from Poland. After leaving Poland, his grandfather settled in Texas after the American Civil War and married Dillon's Swedish-American grandmother. Dillon's father later changed his family name to Dillon, his grandmother's maiden name. Dillon's mother was descended from Grahams Lairds of Tamrawer Castle at Kilsyth, Stirling, Scotland.
Dillon began his education at Pine Lodge School in Lakehurst, Ocean County, New Jersey which he attended at the same time as the three Rockefeller brothers Nelson, Laurance, and John. He continued at Groton School in Massachusetts, then at Harvard University, A.B. magna cum laude 1931 in American history and literature. Dillon earned a varsity letter for football his senior year.
In 1938 be became Vice-President and Director of Dillon, Read & Co., a firm that bore his father's name (Clarence Dillon). After his World War II service on Guam, on Saipan, and in the Philippines, he left the United States Navy as Lieutenant Commander decorated with the Legion of Merit and Air Medal. In 1946 he became chairman of Dillon, Read; by 1952 he had doubled the firm's investments.
Dillon had been active in Republican politics since 1934. He worked for John Foster Dulles in Thomas E. Dewey's 1948 presidential campaign. In 1951 he organized the New Jersey effort to secure the 1952 Republican nomination for Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was also a major contributor to Eisenhower's general election campaign in 1952.
President Eisenhower appointed him United States Ambassador to France in 1953. Following that appointment he became Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in 1958 before becoming Under Secretary of State the following year.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy, appointed Republican, Dillon Treasury Secretary. Dillon remained Treasury Secretary under President Lyndon B. Johnson until 1965.
Dillon proposed the fifth round of tariff negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), conducted in Geneva 1960–1962; it came to be called the "Dillon Round" and led to substantial tariff reduction. Dillon was important in securing presidential power for reciprocal tariff reductions under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. He also played a role in crafting the Revenue Act of 1962, which established a 7 percent investment credit to spur industrial growth. He supervised revision of depreciation rules to benefit corporate investment. A close friend of John D. Rockefeller III, he was chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1972 to 1975. He also served alongside John Rockefeller on the 1973 Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs, and under Nelson Rockefeller in the Rockefeller Commission to investigate CIA activities (along with Ronald Reagan). He had been president of Harvard Board of Overseers, chairman of the Brookings Institution, and vice chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations.
With his first wife, Dillon collected impressionist art. He was a longtime trustee of the Metropolitan Museum, serving as its President (1970–1977) and then chairman. He built up its Chinese galleries and served as a member of the Museum's Centennial committee. He personally donated $20 million to the museum and led a fundraising campaign, which raised an additional $100 million.
He received the Medal of Freedom in 1989 and was also a member of the Society of Colonial Wars.
Dillon died of natural causes at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City at the age of 93.
Personal life
In Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, on March 10, 1931, Dillon married his first wife, the former Phyllis Chess Ellsworth (South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana, August 3, 1910 – New York City, New York, June 20, 1982), the daughter of John Chess Ellsworth (South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana, 20 December 1874 – living 1957) and wife (m. Lowell, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 14 October 1903) Alice Frances Chalifoux (Lowell, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 9 August 1881 – New York City, New York, 27 January 1957), who bore him two daughters:
In 1983, Dillon married his second wife, the former Susan Sage (born 1917).