Charles Dewey Hilles Jr. (1902-1974) was Treasurer of the American
Cancer Society in 1945 and
its Secretary from 1946-52. He was director-at-large of the ACS and its
predecessor from 1939 to 1959, Chairman of the Executive Committee in
1954, and Vice Board Chairman in 1957; and subsequently an Honorary
Life Director of the ACS. (Cancer Society Elects. New York
Times, Mar. 9, 1947; Will Help Cancer Drive. New York Times, Mar. 24,
1949; Cancer Society Will Be Assisted At Fete Dec. 12. New York Times,
Nov. 9, 1958.) He graduated from Yale a year before former Wisconsin
Governor Walter J. Kohler Jr.,
another longtime officer of the ACS, whose father had become the
Republican governor of Wisconsin in 1929.
Charles Hilles was an usher for his Bones 1924 classmate, Sherman
Ewing, who married Mary Peavey Heffelfinger, the daughter of Frank
Totten Heffelfinger and granddaughter of Frank H. Peavey, the
Minneapolis grain elevator magnates. Her brothers, Frank Peavey
Heffelfinger, S&B 1920, and George Wright Heffelfinger, S&B
1924; and Revell McCallum, Charles Marville Spofford, William Davis
Melton, and John Cabot Diller, all S&B 1924, were also ushers.
(Ewing-Heffelfinger. New York Times, Sep. 20, 1925.) He was also
an
usher at the wedding of his Yale '24 classmate Allen Aloysius Ryan, the
grandson of tobacco financier Thomas
Fortune Ryan, who declined
election to Scroll & Keys (Yale Tap Day Brings Honors To Juniors.
New York Times, May 18, 1923.) Ryan's ushers also included Thomas
Frederick David Haines, Clifton Samuel Thompson, and Edwin Foster
Blair, all S&B 1924; James T. Babb, Elihu Club '24; and Charles H.
Sabin Jr. (Janet Newbold Weds A.A. Ryan Jr. New York Times, Feb. 6,
1929.) Guests at the pre-marital dinner for the Hilles's son and
daughter-in-law-to-be included the Mr. and Mrs. Revell McCallum, Mr.
and Mrs. Sherman Ewing, Mr. and Mrs. Clifton Thomson, Mr. and Mrs.
William Mallory, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Blair, William T. Lusk, Frederick
Haines, and George F.B. Appel, all S&B 1924; and Kenneth Ives and
Frederick Sheffield, Scroll & Keys 1924. (C.D. Hilleses Give
Dinner. New York Times, Mar. 16, 1929.) Lusk was the son of Graham Lusk, and grandson of Dr. William T. Lusk.
Charles D. Hilles Jr. was associated with the law firm of Root Clark
Buckner and Ballantine from 1928 to 1931. He was Secretary of the
Bondholders' Protective Committee for holders of bonds sold through the
F.H. Smith Co., and of the Greater New York Real Estate Bondholders
Committee, both of which were chaired by George Emlen Roosevelt.
(Display Ad 46. New York Times, May 16, 1930 p. 44; Organize to Guard
City Realty Bonds. New York Times, Jan. 18, 1932.) He joined
International Telephone & Telegraph as assistant general attorney
and assistant secretary in 1941, and was elected secretary in 1942.
(Two New Officials Elected By I.T.&T. New York Times, Aug. 12,
1942.) The head of I.T.&T. had been a member of the Republican
National Committee while Hilles's father was chairman. Hilles was
elected Vice President, along with Henry
C. Roemer, who later became a
director of RJ Reynolds Tobacco. (Elected Vice Presidents of
I.T.&T. New York Times, Feb. 8, 1944.) He was elected a director in
1946.
(I.T.&T. Vice President Is Named as a Director. New York Times,
Apr. 9, 1946.) I.T.&T. made "numerous payments" to Heinrich Himmler
in the
late 1930s, and through subsidiaries during World War II. (Chapter 5,
I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War. In: Wall Street and the Rise of
Hitler. By Antony C. Sutton.) George Emlen Roosevelt, Lansing P. Reed,
and other members of the Guaranty Trust are implicated in this exploit.
Sutton, Ch. 5, Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler / Reformed-Theology
In 1947, his father-in-law left a large estate to be divided equally
among his five children ($1,244,573 Willed By Arthur C. Train. New York
Times, Oct. 30, 1947.) In 1949, Hilles was elected a director of the
Downtown-Beekman Hospital. (Elected to Board of Hospital. New York
Times, Jan. 31, 1949.) In 1952, Hilles was elected director of the
Royal Typewriter Company, whose chairman was his old classmate, Allan
A. Ryan. (Executive Changes. New York Times, Jan. 16,
1952), and a vice president and general attorney of I.T.&T. (Take
New High Posts With I.T.&T. New York Times, Feb. 15, 1952.) Hilles
was the special legal
advisor to the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, James B. Conant,
from 1954-55 (New Yorker Sworn In As Conant Legal Aide. New York Times,
Apr. 21, 1954.) Conant, who succeeded John J. McCloy, was a founding
member of the National Advisory Cancer Council of the National Cancer
Institute.
After leaving this post, Hilles was elected a director of the Taft
School (Taft School Elects Three. New York Times, Oct. 2, 1955.),
promoted to executive vice president at I.T.&T. (I.T.&T. Units
Promote Three. New York Times, Jun. 4, 1956.), and joined the board of
the Royal McBee Corporation (I.T.&T. Officer Added To Royal McBee
Board. New York Times, Oct. 4, 1956.) Also, Hilles's daughter, Lee,
married Gunther Klaus Wertheim, a member of the
technical staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., in
the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Epiphany. (Miss Lee Hilles is
Married Here. New York Times, Sep. 9, 1956.) In 1957, when he was
elected a director of the New York Trust Company, Hilles was executive
vice president and a director of the International Telephone and
Telegraph
Corp; a member of
the U.S. Advisory Board of the Zurich General Liability and Accident
Insurance Co. Ltd., American Guarantee and Liability Insurance Co.,
Aglic Investing and Management Co., and a director of the Royal McBee
Corporation [which was acquired by Litton Industries in 1965]. (New
Director Chosen By New York Trust Co. New York Times, May 23, 1957.)
His fellow directors of the New York Trust included Malcolm P. Aldrich,
S&B 1922; B. Brewster
Jennings; and Arthur K. Watson, President of I.B.M. World Trade
Corporation. (Display Ad 283. New York Times, Oct. 2, 1957 p. 47.)
In 1959, Hilles was elected a director of the International Holdings
Corporation (High Officer at I.T.&T. Named Fund Director. New York
Times, Jul. 21, 1959), a closed-end investment fund whose officers
H.W.B. Schroder, chairman of Schroders Ltd. (Lord Perth Gets Post At
Investment Concern. New York Times, Jun. 20, 1962); John I. Howell,
President of J. Henry Schroder Banking Corp. and Schroder Trust
(International Holdings Names New Director. New York Times, Jan. 7,
1965); and Edmund Bartlett, President of J. Henry Schroder
(International Holdings Elects New President. New York Times, Dec. 22,
1967.) Hilles retired as a director of I.T.&T. in 1969, and died in
1974. (Charles D. Hilles, Ex-I.T.T. Officer. New York Times, Apr. 30,
1974.)
Charles D. Hilles Sr. (!867-1949) was the Secretary of President William Howard Taft
(S&B
1878) from 1911-12; chairman of the Republican National
Committee from 1912 to 1916, and national committeeman from New York
from 1920-1937. "The influence of Mr. Hilles increased greatly upon the
accession of Calvin Coolidge to the Presidency. During the seven years
of Mr. Coolidge's occupancy of the White House no New York appointments
were made without the approval of Mr. Hilles and James W. Wadsworth
[Jr., 1877-1952, Skull & Bones 1898], then United States Senator"
[1915-27, and US Represenative 1933-50]. Hilles's father was descended
from Hugh Hilles, who emigrated from England in 1743 and settled in
Philadelphia; and his mother was a member of the Lee family of
Virginia, whose uncle, Charles Dewey, was a cousin of Admiral Dewey.
Hilles was a director of the Otis Elevator Co., American Smelting and
Refining Co., Marine-Midland Trust Co., Otis Renson Elevator Co.,
Library Square Realty Co., New York Life Insurance Co., Bankers Trust
Co., the M.K.&T. Railroad, Waygood-Otis Co., Central
Westchester
Realty Co., Anglo-Chilean Nitrate Co., General Cable Corp., Eastport
and National Bank, and Eagle Machine Co.; and a trustee of the
Guggenheim Foundation
[1925 to 1949] and the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. (C.D. Hilles
Dies; Led Republicans. New York Times, Aug. 29, 1949;
Hilles Left $1,208,279. New York Times, Mar. 31, 1951- including
$524,573 in securities and $683,976 in insurance.) Sosthenes Behn, the head of
International Telephone & Telegraph, upon whose board Charles D.
Hilles Jr. later served, was a member of the Republican National
Committee from 1912 to 1916.
Frederick Whiley Hilles, S&B 1922, was Charles D. Hilles Jr.'s brother; and their sister, Elizabeth, married Dr. George Stoddard Reynolds. Frederick Hilles was slapped by Marcien Jenckes, and his secret society classmates included Robert Guthrie Page of Madison, Wis. in Bones, and Robert Maynard Hutchins in Wolf's Head. (Tap Day Exercises Are Held At Yale. New York Times, May 20, 1921.) Ushers at Frederick Hilles's wedding included Malcolm Pratt Aldrich, Robert Johnson Larner, and Dr. Robert Folger Solley, all Skull & Bones 1922. (Marriage Announcement 1. New York Times, June 15, 1930.) "In World War II, he served as a captain in the Army Air Corps on the staff of the Air Intelligence School and in military intelligence in Britain," and was discharged as a lieutenant colonel. (Frederick Hilles Dies; Yale English Scholar, 75. New York Times, Dec. 12, 1975.) His mother-in-law, the wife of Rev. Dr. William Inglis Morse, who was rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Lynn, Mass., for twenty-five years, donated $2 million to Yale University. (Name of Yale Donor is Revealed By Will. New York Times, Jun. 15, 1951; Dr. W.I. Morse, 78, Author, Historian. New York Times, Jun. 6, 1952.) Dr. Frederick W. Hilles presented his crony from the Yale English Department, Douglas Maitland Knight, to be installed as the youngest president in the history of Lawrence College. (New President Installed At Lawrence. Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb. 26, 1954.) Knight's father-in-law, Rev. Dr. Robert Hastings Nichols, was professor of church history at Union Theological Seminary from 1913 to 1944 (Rev. R.H. Nichols, An Educator, 81. New York Times, Jul. 20, 1955), whose father, Rev. Dr. G.P. Nichols, had been the pastor of a wealthy Presbyterian congregation in Milwaukee (Milwaukee Pulpit Sketches. Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 5, 1876). Knight was later the president of Duke University from 1963 to 1969, where he established joint M.D.-J.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. degrees. (Douglas M. Knight, Fifth Duke President, Dies at 83. Duke University News and Communications, January 23, 2005). Lawrence College was founded by Amos Lawrence, the grandfather of Bishop William Lawrence whose son-in-law, Lansing P. Reed (S&B 1904), helped arrange the funding of Hitler through I.T.&T. Mrs. Frederick W. Hilles was a fund-raiser for Channel 13 in New York City, along with Mrs. Lewis Cullman and Mrs. Christian A. Herter. (Nov. 28 Auction to Raise Funds For Channel 13. New York Times, Nov. 20, 1966.)
Douglas M. Knight / Duke Universitycast 04-06-08