Edward Reilly Stettinius (February 15, 1865 – September 3, 1925) was an American executive. He was president of Diamond Match Company in

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, for a time. After the start of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he worked at J. P. Morgan and Company coordinating the purchase of war supplies for the Allies. When the United States entered the war, he went to work in its War Department.

Biography

Stettinius was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

. His father was a wholesale grocer. He was educated at St. Louis University. The needs of his family obligated him to drop out of school at age 16, and he went to work for a grocery firm and then a hat and cap firm. He then tried several lines of business on his own account, but was not very successful, and went to work in a banking firm. By 1891, both his mother and father had died, and he went to the commodity exchange at the

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, but did not find that he could satisfactorily predict the price of wheat and left to become treasurer in the Stirling Boiler Company. The business

panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...

obligated him to add several other tasks to the one of treasurer. As conditions improved, he began to work in sales, doing well enough that he became general manager of the company. His participation in the merger of that company and several others in the same line to form

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helped his reputation, and he was recruited to work at Diamond Match Company, where he became president in 1909. His employer at Stirling was O. C. Barber, who also used his influence to make him president at Diamond Match, where Stettinius succeeded him. At the beginning of

, Stettinius went to work as a partner for J. P. Morgan and Company where he worked as chief buyer of war supplies for the Allies, overseeing a work force of around 150 people. When the United States entered the war, he went to work for the War Department, in charge of procurement and production of supplies for the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

. On April 6, 1918, he became Assistant Secretary of War. He received the Distinguished Service Medal from the War Department in recognition of his service. After the war, he went back to work for Morgan and Company, devoting his attention to restructuring large companies. He died at Locust Valley, New York on September 3, 1925. Edward is buried in Locust Valley Cemetery, Locust Valley, New York.

Family

He married Judith Carrington of

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. They had four children, among them Stettinius's namesake, Edward Stettinius Jr., who also worked as a business executive, and was Secretary of State for a time. In 1928, Edward's daughter Elizabeth "Betty" married

Juan Trippe Juan Terry Trippe (June 27, 1899 – April 3, 1981) was an American commercial aviation pioneer, entrepreneur and the founder of Pan American World Airways, one of the iconic airlines of the 20th century. He was involved in the introduction of t ...

, founder of

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

Airlines.

Notes

References

* This article incorporates text from a work in the

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: {{DEFAULTSORT:Stettinius, Edward 1865 births 1925 deaths Businesspeople from St. Louis Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) Civilian recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Burials at Locust Valley Cemetery

Biography

Family

Notes

Further reading

References