Charles Edward Wilson was an American businessman, who served as a chief executive officer of General Electric.
Background
Charles E. Wilson was born on November 18, 1886, in New York City, the son of George H. Wilson, a bookbinder, and Hannah Rebecca Stiles. His father died when he was three years old, and his mother went to work as a housekeeper and practical nurse. Wilson grew up in the tough Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan's West Side.
Education
He left school in September 1899, completing the seventh grade.
Career
Wilson took a job in the shipping department at Sprague Electrical Works, which became a General Electric subsidiary in 1903. Wilson was soon taken under the wing of William T. Ruete, superintendent at the Sprague Works. Ruete became a friend and surrogate father to the teenager and encouraged him to attend night school and to study accounting and engineering through correspondence courses. Wilson moved up and was successively shipping clerk, plant accountant, and purchasing agent.
In 1906, he became the production manager and the following year, assistant superintendent of the Sprague Works. During World War I, the Sprague Company began producing telephone switchboards and instrument panels for aircraft, and Wilson was given responsibility for developing and selling these new products.
In 1918, General Electric absorbed the Sprague operations, and Wilson was assigned as assistant superintendent of the GE plants in Maspeth, New York, and Kensington, Pennsylvania.
In 1923, he took over as managing engineer of the GE wire and conduit division in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and in 1928 he was promoted to assistant to the vice-president of the merchandise department. He then moved up to vicepresident in charge of appliances in 1930, to executive vice-president and a member of the board of directors in 1937, and to president of GE on January 1, 1940, replacing the retiring Gerard Swope.
Wilson left General Electric in 1942 to assume major responsibilities for the American war effort. Then, in September 1942, with the United States struggling to increase production of war material, Wilson went to Washington, at the request of President Roosevelt, to become vice chairman to the War Production Board. In this capacity Wilson worked directly under Donald Nelson at the WPB and was successful in increasing the production of military aircraft to almost 100, 000 in 1944. He was not successful, however, in handling the intricacies of Washington politics and resigned under fire in August 1944.
Wilson then returned to GE and led the company in a period of postwar growth. His tenure at GE was marked by a continuation and expansion of the consumer-oriented policies begun under Swope. Wilson expanded the production of electrical appliances to meet increasing consumer demand, and he led GE into new areas of development, most notably atomic energy. During his tenure, GE produced 200, 000 different items in 115 factories. During the 1930's and 1940's, GE adopted a policy of paternalism that sought to blunt the thrust of unionism in GE plants. This policy was initiated by Swope and aggressively continued by Wilson. Under his leadership GE played a significant role in promoting the antiunion sentiment that culminated in the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. Wilson was convinced that organized labor's demands for wage increases were driving up inflation and undermining the American economy. He generally characterized this sentiment in terms of Cold War rhetoric. GE's antiunion tactics were later termed "Boulwarism, " after GE executive Lemuel Boulware, who worked under Wilson's direction and articulated the policy. As a supporter of the act, Wilson was appointed to serve on the Taft-Hartley Advisory Board. Wilson also acceded to President Truman's request that he accept the chairmanship of the President's Committee on Civil Rights.
With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, Wilson was called back into government service by President Truman. He was sixty-three and was anticipating mandatory retirement in two years. His choice as his successor at GE, Ralph J. Cordiner, had been appointed as executive vice-president, the last step before the presidency of the firm. In December 1950, Wilson became director of the Office of Defense Mobilization. This office, authorized by Congress and created by executive order, had the authority to act on behalf of the president to "direct, control, and coordinate all mobilization activities including but not limited to, production, procurement, manpower, stabilization, and transport activities. " Wilson approached the position with his usual forthright manner and ran afoul of the similarly forthright president. Wilson resigned in 1952 in opposition to Truman's approval of a wage hike for steelworkers.
Despite the fact that he had reached retirement age, Wilson returned to GE but left soon thereafter to join the W. R. Grace Company, an international trading conglomerate, in 1952. He served as consultant and director of the company and headed the board's executive committee beginning in 1954. In May 1955, he was elected chairman of the board at Grace, the first person outside of the family to achieve this distinction. In 1956, Wilson resigned from Grace and for the next two years headed up the People-to-People Foundation, a nonpartisan organization to promote international understanding that was established at the behest of President Eisenhower. From 1958 until his death on January 3, 1972 in Bronxville, New York, Wilson remained active as a business consultant.
Achievements
Politics
Charles Edward Wilson was an active Republican and opposed to the New Deal policies.
Personality
Charles Edward Wilson was a large man and tended to be forthright in manner.
Connections
On November 18, 1907, Charles E. Wilson married Elizabeth Maisch. The couple adopted one child.