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Clarence Douglas Dillon (Geneva, August 21, 1909 – New York City, New York, January 10, 2003) son of Clarence and Anne McEldin 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 a Member of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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Clarence Douglas Dillon (Geneva, August 21, 1909 – New York City, New York, January 10, 2003) son of Clarence and Anne McEldin 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 a Member of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Dillon's family descended from his grandfather, Samuel Lapowski, a poor immigrant from Poland, who changed the family name from Lapowski to Dillon ("Samuel Dillon"). Dillon's mother, Anne Douglass, is descended from Grahams Lairds of Tamrawer Castle at Kilsyth, Stirling, Scotland.
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, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1931.[1]
In 1938 be became Vice-President and Director of Dillon, Read & Co., co-founded by his father, Clarence Dillon. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy. In 1946 he became chairman of Dillon, Read.
He entered government service in 1953, being appointed United States Ambassador to France by President Eisenhower. Following that appointment he became Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in 1958 before becoming Under Secretary of State the following year.[2]
Despite being a Republican, he was appointed Treasury Secretary by President Kennedy in 1961. He retained the position, serving under President 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.
A close friend of John D. Rockefeller III, he was chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation from from 1972 to 1975. He also served alongside Rockefeller on the 1973 Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs. From 1978, Dillon served as President of the New York Metropolitan Museum, particularly building 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. « less
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