Occupation Financial capitalist Name Charles Flint | Role Businessman Books The Trust: Its Book | |
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Spouse(s) Emma Kate Simmons (m. 1883; d. 1926)Charlotte Reeves (m. 1927; wid. 1934) Died February 26, 1934, Washington, D.C., United States Education Polytechnic Institute of New York University Similar People Thomas J Watson, Ginni Rometty, Thomas Watson Jr, Frank T Cary, Ross Perot | ||
Charles Ranlett Flint (January 24, 1850 – February 26, 1934) was an American and was the founder of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company which later became IBM. For his financial dealings he earned the moniker "Father of Trusts".
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Early life and family
Flint was born on January 24, 1850 in Thomaston, Maine. His father, Benjamin Chapman, had changed the family name to Flint after being adopted by an uncle on his mother's side. The family moved from Maine to New York City where his father ran the family's mercantile firm Chapman & Flint, which had been founded in 1837.
Business career
In 1868, Charles Flint graduated from the New York University - Tandon School of Engineering (then Polytechnic University of New York) in Brooklyn, and in 1871 entered the shipping business as a partner in Gilchrest, Flint & Co., and later W.R. Grace & Co. after a merger.
From 1876 to 1879, he served as the Chilean consul at New York City. He also served as consul general to the United States for Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
In 1892, he consolidated several companies to form U.S. Rubber. In 1899 he repeated the same with Adams Chewing Gum, Chiclets, Dentyne, and Beemans to form American Chicle. He was also responsible for the formation of American Woolen in 1899.
In 1911 he formed the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company through the amalgamation (via stock acquisition) of four companies: The Tabulating Machine Company, International Time Recording Company, Computing Scale Company of America, and the Bundy Manufacturing Company. Amalgamation was unusual at the time, Flint described it as an "allied" consolidation. In 1924, CTR was re-christened as International Business Machines. Flint served on the board of directors of IBM until 1930 when he retired.
He died on February 26, 1934 in Washington, D.C..
Legacy
Charles Flint was an avid sportsman and loved swimming, hunting, fishing, sailing, and aviation. He helped found the Automobile Club of America. His Time Magazine obituary stated he negotiated the Wright Brothers' first sales of airplanes overseas. But it was the Wrights themselves, in sometimes contentious negotiations with Charles R. Flint & Co., who determined contract terms.