Henry Crown
| Henry Crown | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Henry Krinsky June 13, 1896 |
| Died | August 14, 1990 (aged 94) |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Founded the Material Service Corporation in 1919 and the Henry Crown and Company in 1959 |
| Spouse(s) |
Rebecca Kranz (m. 1899; div. 1943) Gladys Kay |
| Children |
with Kranz:
|
| Parent(s) | Ida Krinsky (1871–1956) and Arie Krinsky (1861–1937) |
with Kranz:
Henry Crown (June 13, 1896 – August 14, 1990) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Among other things, he founded the Material Service Corporation, which merged with General Dynamics in 1959. At the time of his death, he was a billionaire. Henry Crown and Company, of which he is the namesake, is an investment firm that owns or has interests in a variety of business assets.
Crown (birth name Henry Krinsky) was born in 1896 to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. He was third of seven children of a sweatshop worker, Arie Krinsky, and his wife Ida. His father changed the family name to Crown while Henry was a boy. Crown did not attend school past the eighth grade. In 1915, at the age of 19, he started a company with his older brother Sol selling steel. Sol later died of tuberculosis.
In 1919, on borrowed capital of $10,000, Crown established (with his brother Irving) the Material Service Corporation (MSC). In its first year the company made a profit of $7,000 on sales of $218,000. MSC sold gravel, sand, lime, and coal to builders in the Chicago area.
Crown gained a controlling interest in General Dynamics in 1959, when he merged the company with MSC. By this time, MSC was a $100 million company.
According to his own claim, Crown had given away "nine figures" in his philanthropic pursuits by the time he turned 79. His beneficiaries included the University of Chicago, Brandeis, Stanford, Northwestern and the St. Lawrence University student investment fund.
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