Charles A. Dana

Charles Anderson Dana (April 25, 1881 – November 27, 1975) was an American businessman, politician and philanthropist who founded the Dana Foundation and the Dana Corporation.

Life Dana was born in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of New York City on April 25, 1881. He was a son of Laura (née Parkin) Dana (1843–1932) and Charles Dana (1824–1906), a businessman and philanthropist originally from Brandon, Vermont, who established the first bank in Hawaii and worked with the Vanderbilt family until his retirement. He was a nephew and namesake of Charles Anderson Dana, the editor and part owner of The New York Sun.

He received a B.A. degree from Columbia University followed by a law degree from Columbia Law School.

Political career Dana was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 27th D.) in 1910 and 1912. Dana allied himself with Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Theodore Roosevelt, eventually managing one of Roosevelt's campaigns.

Business career In 1914, Dana entered the business world, leading Spicer Manufacturing for more than half a century and established the Dana Corporation in 1946. While representing a company that owned rights to the universal joint, the device that essentially replaced belts and chains and linked the power of an automobile engine to the rear wheels of a car, he recognized its growth potential and bought 80% of the company. Empire Trust Company, Manufacturers Trust, the Fisk Rubber Corporation and several companies in England. Before their divorce in April 1938, they were the parents of two children:

Charles Anderson Dana Jr. (1915–2001), who married Marion Connett Turrell in 1940. They divorced and he married Eleanor (née Waters) Langhorne in 1951. Agnes Ladson Dana, who made her debut in 1937, and married Morgan Cowperthwaite in 1939.

His second marriage was to Eleanor (née Naylor) Stafford (1907–1982) in Texas in August 1940. Eleanor, a daughter of W. H. Naylor of Carthage, Texas, was previously married to David Tarlton Stafford. Together, they were the parents of two sons and two daughters, including:

David S. Dana Ann Dana, who married lawyer Robert E. Kusch in 1961.

Dana died on November 27, 1975, at Wilton, Connecticut and was buried at Pine Hill Cemetery in Brandon, Vermont. His widow died at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, after a long illness, in 1982. The foundation's support for the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute resulted in it being renamed the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in 1983.