C. Douglas Dillon
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Image:C Douglas Dillon.jpg Image:C Douglas Dillon sig.jpg Clarence Douglas Dillon (August 21, 1909 – January 10, 2003) son of Clarence and Ann (Douglass) Dillon, was U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France (1953-1957) and 57th secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury (1961-1965). He also was an important member of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Appointed by Democrat president John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Dillon was himself a Republican. His policies created a solid economic expansion and president Lyndon Baines Johnson kept him in his job after Kennedy's assassination.
He was vice president, then director, then chairman of the board of Dillon, Read and Company, co-founded by his father, Clarence Dillon.
The family descends from his poor grandfather Lapowski, who immigrated from Poland and who changed the family name from (Sam) Lapowski to Dillon ("Samuel Dillon"). Dillon's mother, Anne Douglass, is descended from Grahams Lairds of Tamrawer Castle at Kilsyth, Stirling, Scotland - see family tree link below.
Dillon served as President of the New York Metropolitan Museum, esp. building up its Chinese galleries; personally donating $20 million to the museum and leading a fundraising campaign that raised an additional $100 million.
During World War II, he served in the United States Navy.
He received the Medal of Freedom in 1989.
He was survived by 2nd wife and two daughters and lived most recently in Fairfield, CT.
Further Reference:
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