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C. Douglas Dillon
Clarence Douglas Dillon (born Clarence Douglass Dillon in Geneva, August 21, 1909 – New York City, New York, 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.
Dillon grew up as a patrician. But his paternal grandfather, Samuel Lapowski, was a poor Jewish immigrant to Texas from Poland who settled in Texas after the American Civil War. Dillon's father Clarence later changed his family name to Dillon, after his grandmother's maiden name. Dillon's mother, Anne Douglass, is descended from Grahams Lairds of Tamrawer Castle at Kilsyth, Stirling, Scotland.
C. Douglas Dillon father was Clarence Dillon, (September 27, 1882 - April 14, 1979) born Clarence Lapowski (name legally changed 17 September 1901) in San Antonio, Texas, financier, millionaire. Died at age 97. C. Douglas Dillon died at the age of 93.
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 the Groton School in Massachusetts, then at Harvard University, A.B. magna cum laude 1931 in American history and literature.
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 President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, appointed Republican, Dillon Treasury Secretary. Dillon remained under President Lyndon B. Johnson until 1965. The Fifth Round of tariff negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which lasted from 1960 to 1962, was known as the "Dillon Round", after Dillon, who proposed its inception. 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 called the "Dillon Round", and left 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 that 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 Rockefeller on the 1973 Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs. He had abeen 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 long time trustee of the Metropolitan Museum, its President 1970–1977, and then chairman. He built up its Chinese galleries. He personally donated $20 million to the museum and led a fundraising campaign that raised an additional $100 million.
He received the Medal of Freedom in 1989.
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