William Hood Dunwoody
| William Hood Dunwoody | |
|---|---|
Portrait of William Hood Dunwoody
by Julian Russell Story (1911) |
|
| Born |
March 14, 1841 Westtown, Pennsylvania |
| Died | February 8, 1914 (aged 72) Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | businessperson |
William Hood Dunwoody (March 14, 1841 – February 8, 1914) was an American banker, miller, art patron and philanthropist. He was a partner in what is today General Mills and for thirty years a leader of Northwestern National Bank, today's Wells Fargo.
Dunwoody sold American flour to British bakers, creating an export market and environment in which Minneapolis, Minnesota, became for a time the world's center of flour milling. By 1901, he was one of sixteen millionaires in Minneapolis.
He is remembered today for his bequests that created the Dunwoody Institute (now the Dunwoody College of Technology) and The William Hood Dunwoody Fund of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Of Scottish descent, Dunwoody was a Quaker but he worshiped as a Presbyterian at Westminster Presbyterian Church. In 1684, his maternal ancestors John and Ann Hood and their family emigrated from Castle Donington in Leicestershire, to Pennsylvania. Dunwoody visited the area in 1893, when he and the genealogist he hired tried and failed to find a Quaker meeting place.
He was born March 14, 1841, in Westtown, Pennsylvania, about eleven miles from Philadelphia, to James and Hannah (Hood) Dunwoody, who were farmers. He had two brothers, Evan who lived in Colorado Springs and survived him and John who died in Minneapolis. Dunwoody went to local country schools, and at fourteen he attended an academy in Philadelphia. Dunwoody then worked for five years with his uncle, Ezekiel Dunwoody, who owned a grain and feed business in Philadelphia. Then as senior partner at age 23, he started his own business, Dunwoody & Robertson, and became a flour merchant.
He and Kate L. Dunwoody (Katie L. Patten) married in 1868; they had no children. They made a permanent move to Minneapolis in 1869, when Dunwoody was 28.William Channing Whitney built their first home at Mary Place & 10th Street in 1882, and they later donated the house to the Woman's Boarding Home.
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