CLARENCE DILLON (1882-1979)

Born in San Antonio, Texas, son of Samuel Dillon and Bertha Lapowitz. Harvard, 1905. Married Anne Douglass of Milwaukee. His son, C. Douglas Dillon (later Secretary of the Treasury, 1961-65) was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1909 while they were abroad. Dillon met William A. Read, founder of the Wall Street bond broker William A. Read and Company, through introduction by Harvard classmate William A. Phillips in 1912 and Dillon joined Read’s Chicago office in that year. He moved to New York in 1914. Read died in 1916, and Dillon bought a majority interest in the firm. During World War 1, Bernard Baruch, chairman of the War Industries Board, (known as the Czar of American industry) asked Dillon to be assistant chairman of the War Industries Board. In 1920, William A. Read & Company name was changed to Dillon, Read & Company. Dillon was director of American Foreign Securities Corporation, which he had set up in 1915 to finance the French Government’s purchases of munitions in the United States. His righthand man at Dillon Read, James Forrestal, became Secretary of the Navy, later Secretary of Defense, and died under mysterious circumstances at a Federal hospital. In 1957, Fortune Magazine listed Dillon as one of the richest men in the United States, with a fortune then estimated to be from $150 to $200 million.

Clarence Dillon was attracted to France both because his mother was of French origin and by his own, personal tastes. In 1929, he installed an apartment in Paris where he stayed a part of each year.

After months of negotiation with André Gibert, Clarence Dillon bought Château Haut-Brion on May 13, 1935 for 2,300,000 francs.

Why did Clarence Dillon buy Château Haut-Brion? In his own words, Haut-Brion was his favorite wine. There is also the fact that Haut-Brion was near Bordeaux, and surrounded by good riding and hunting land.