Charles Henry Dyson (August 2, 1909 – March 14, 1997) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was founder of the Dyson Kissner-Moran Corporation (founded in 1954) and the Dyson Foundation (founded in 1957).
Business career
Dyson began his career in 1932 as an accountant at Price Waterhouse & Company. After a two-year tour as a chartered accountant in England with Price Waterhouse & Company, Dyson was rewarded by being named a manager when he returned to the United States in 1938. He remained with the company until he was recruited to government service for the
Lend Lease Program. After the war, he returned to the business world as the Executive Vice President of Finance of the
Textron Corporation under its founder, Royal (Roy) Little. In 1949, he moved to
Burlington Mills Corporation where he served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer under President Spencer Love. In 1954, he founded the
Dyson Corporation (now
Dyson Kissner-Moran Corporation), a private investment firm specializing in acquisitions and mergers.
Military career
Dyson was recruited by the Federal government as a civilian to help set up the procurement and record keeping for the Lend Lease Program. At the U.S. declaration of World War II, he was drafted into the same position as a lieutenant in the Army Air Force. During his military service, the War Department assigned him to the Treasury Department to assist the Treasury Secretary,
Henry Morgenthau, Jr
Henry Morgenthau Jr. (; May 11, 1891February 6, 1967) was the United States Secretary of the Treasury during most of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal. After 1937, while s ...
. and Secretary of State,
Dean Acheson
Dean Gooderham Acheson (pronounced ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American statesman and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman ...
, at the
United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United ...
in
Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
Bretton Woods is an area within the town of Carroll, New Hampshire, United States, whose principal points of interest are three leisure and recreation facilities. Being virtually surrounded by the White Mountain National Forest, the vista from B ...
. The UNMFC was created to set the post-war exchange rates for world currencies, principally the dollar, franc, pound, and the German mark. For his diverse and distinguished service, Dyson was awarded the
Distinguished Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a high award of a nation.
Examples include:
*Distinguished Service Medal (Australia) (established 1991), awarded to personnel of the Australian Defence Force for distinguished leadership in action
* Distinguishe ...
.
Charitable interests
In 1957, Dyson and wife Margaret Dyson (1914–1990) created the
Dyson Foundation Dyson may refer to:
* Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson
* Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson
* Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon
* Dyson (operating system), a Unix general-pu ...
, one of the wealthiest charities in the United States. In 2004, the foundation had approximately $295,000,000 in assets and awarded over $16.3 million in grants.
A 1930 graduate of New York's
Pace University
Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pace ...
(then the Pace Institute), Dyson has been a generous benefactor for his alma mater. The Dyson College of Arts and Sciences at Pace University and "Dyson Hall" in Pleasantville, NY, are named in his honor.
There is a Margaret M. and Charles H. Dyson Atrium at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
in
Sage Hall
Sage Hall was built in 1875 at Cornell University's Ithaca, New York campus. Originally designed as a residential building, it currently houses the Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Conception
Although women had previously enrolled in Cor ...
, part of the
Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
The Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management is the graduate business school in the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, a private Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York. It was founded in 1946 and ren ...
and a Margaret M. and Charles H. Dyson Center at
Marist College
Marist College is a private university in Poughkeepsie, New York. Founded in 1905, Marist was formed by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic religious institute, to prepare brothers for their vocations as educators. In 2003, it became a secular in ...
, which houses the School of Management and the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
In June 2010, Cornell University received a $25 millio
donationfrom the Dyson family which would be used to make improvements to the university's School of Applied Economics and Management. In Dyson's honor, the department was renamed the
Charles Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. In addition, some of the funds would also go towards scholarships.
He was one of the people listed on
Nixon's Enemies List
"Nixon's Enemies List" is the informal name of what started as a list of President of the United States Richard Nixon's major political opponents compiled by Charles Colson, written by George T. Bell (assistant to Colson, White House Counsel, sp ...
in 1971 (he was listed as #5).
He was elected to the
Common Cause
Common Cause is a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., with chapters in 35 states. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican, who was the former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of President L ...
National Governing Board in 1973.
Personal life
Dyson and his wife, Margaret MacGregor Dyson, had four children,
John Stuart (b. 1943),
Robert Richard (b. 1946), Anne Elizabeth (b. 1947), and Peter Lawrence (b. 1951).
External links
Dyson-Kissner-Moran CorporationThe Dyson Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyson, Charlie G.
1909 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
Nixon's Enemies List
United States Army Air Forces officers
PricewaterhouseCoopers people
American philanthropists