Cyrus S. Eaton

Cyrus Eaton
Born	Cyrus Stephen Eaton Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada
Died	May 9, 1979(1979-05-09) (aged 95) Cleveland, Ohio, USA; buried: Deep Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Businessman

Cyrus Stephen Eaton (December 27, 1883 – May 9, 1979) was a Canadian-born American investment banker, businessman and philanthropist, with a career that spanned seventy years.

For decades one of the most powerful financiers in the American midwest, Cyrus Eaton was also a colorful and often-controversial figure. He was chiefly known for his longevity in business, for his opposition to the dominance of eastern financiers in the America of his day, for his occasionally ruthless financial manipulations, and for his outspoken criticism of United States Cold War policy. He funded and helped organize the first Pugwash Conferences on World Peace, in 1955.

Biography

Early life

Eaton was born in 1883 on a farm near the village of Pugwash in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Besides farming, his father, Joseph Howe Eaton, ran a small general store and the district post office.

Education

Eaton left Nova Scotia in 1899 to attend Woodstock College, a Baptist-affiliated prep school in Woodstock, Ontario. He then enrolled at McMaster University, a Baptist university in Toronto, Ontario, in 1901, where he studied philosophy and finance, intending to enter the Baptist ministry. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1905 with a major in Philosophy.

Cyrus Eaton in Leipzig, Germany (June 1960)

Career

After graduating from McMaster he moved to Cleveland and went to work for the East Ohio Gas Company. This was one of many businesses associated John D. Rockefeller. After working with Ohio Gas and Rockefeller for two years. He established his own business in 1907 development of gas utility was relatively underdeveloped and unconsolidated in Canada. He managed to secure natural-gas franchises in Manitoba, Canada representing a group of New York investors. The syndicate was not able to complete its financing and folded. However the Manitoba government was sufficiently impressed to allow Eaton to retain the franchises. Eaton formed a new holding company the Canada Gas & Electric Corp. This was then consolidated into the Continental Gas & Electric Corp. in 1913.

After spending several years traveling Eaton settled in Cleveland in 1913 and became active in many businesses. Eaton joined the Otis & Co. banking firm in 1916. In 1926 he set up an investment vehicle organized as Continental Shares, Inc. a closed end trust. In 1929 he was able to acquire control of the Republic Steel Corp. His business had a complex structure which some felt to be too highly leveraged. His 1929 wealth was an estimated $100 million, most of which he lost in the Great Depression.

Awards

Eaton's 1950s efforts at rapprochement with the Soviet Union won him the 1960 Lenin Peace Prize. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958, and was the recipient of an honourary degree from Bowling Green State University in 1969. The Pugwash Conferences and their Chairman, Joseph Rotblat, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.

Philanthropy

Besides financial support for The Pugwash Conferences, Eaton gave a lot of money to support education in his home province, particularly to his home town and to Acadia University. He supported the establishment of a game sanctuary in Nova Scotia on the Aspotogan Peninsula (his summer home was in Blandford, Nova Scotia where he had his ashes buried and he donated the doors for the local church), and he donated 12 acres (4.9 hectares) of land in Northfield, Ohio, for the Lee Eaton Elementary School, which was named in memory of his daughter. He was also a financial supporter of McMaster University, the YWCA, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Case Western Reserve University.

Cyrus Eaton Gravesite of his ashes, Deep Cove, Nova Scotia

He died in Ohio and had his ashes buried on Blandford and Pugwash, Nova Scotia.

Links

• Cyrus Stephen Eaton, 1883–1979
• "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter E". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 7 April 2011
• Thinkers Lodge

• Cyrus Eaton Foundation
• Cyrus Eaton interviewed by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview

References

Texts

• Gleiser, Marcus, The World of Cyrus Eaton Kent State University Press, 2010; a biography, first published in 1966.
• Gibson, M. Allen, [Cyrus Eaton:] Beautiful Upon the Mountain Lancelot Press, Windsor, Nova Scotia, 1977.
• Time Magazine Cover story. Feb. 24, 1930.

Endnotes