Clarence Woolley

Clarence Mott Woolley (September 15, 1863 – July 18, 1956) was an American industrialist who helped develop the American Radiator Company into one of the world's largest manufacturers of heating equipment. Beginning his career as a traveling salesman, Woolley became president of American Radiator in 1902 and served as its chairman from 1924 until his retirement in 1938. He directed the company's expansion into Europe, promoted the widespread adoption of cast-iron radiators and led its 1929 combination with Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, a predecessor of American Standard Companies.

During World War I, Woolley represented the Department of Commerce on the War Trade Board, subsequently serving as its vice chairman and acting chairman. He was also a longtime director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and served on the boards of numerous corporations, educational institutions and civic organizations.

Early life

Woolley was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 15, 1863. He was the son of Maria Richardson Smith and Smith Rensselaer Woolley, a Detroit businessman and banker who was active in the city's stock exchange, board of trade, common council and school board. His paternal grandfather, Edward Mott Woolley, was a Universalist minister, while his aunt Lucia Fidelia Woolley Gillette was among the earliest women ordained to the Universalist ministry.

Woolley grew up in financially comfortable circumstances, but his family's fortune was largely lost during the economic downturn that followed the Panic of 1873. He left school and began working at about the age of 15. By 1886, he had become a successful traveling salesman of wholesale crockery and accumulated approximately $5,000 in savings.

Business career

Michigan Radiator and American Radiator

In 1886, Woolley invested in the newly organized Michigan Radiator and Iron Company of Detroit, which manufactured cast-iron radiators for residential and commercial heating systems. Cast-iron radiators could be manufactured less expensively than many earlier steel heating systems, and Woolley anticipated that they would become widely used as central heating expanded in American buildings. The company's initial capitalization was approximately $3 million, and its early associates included John B. Dyar, William Jarvis, M. S. Smith, Clarence Carpenter and future United States senator James McMillan. The building later became the subject of Georgia O'Keeffe's 1927 painting Radiator Building - Night, New York.

Merger with Standard Sanitary

During the late 1920s, Woolley proposed combining several large building-products manufacturers into a single corporation whose sales organization could supply most of the equipment required for a commercial building. His plans initially involved American Radiator, Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, H. W. Johns-Manville and the Otis Elevator Company. Negotiations resulted only in a combination between American Radiator and Standard Sanitary, then the country's leading manufacturer of plumbing fixtures. The new company reported sales of approximately $187 million and income exceeding $20 million for that year. Woolley retained a seat on the company's board following his retirement.

In December 1918, Woolley was elected vice chairman of the War Trade Board and was authorized to lead it while chairman Vance C. McCormick attended the Paris Peace Conference.

In 1919, Woolley published an article titled "The Labor Aspect of Reconstruction" in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, discussing the economic and labor problems arising from the transition from war to peacetime production.

Civic activities

The Federal Reserve Board appointed Woolley a Class C director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York beginning in 1921.

Woolley also served on the boards of various companies including General Motors, General Electric, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, the Mutual Life Insurance Company, Texas Gulf Sulphur, Atlantic Mutual Insurance and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel company. He was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1932 to 1935 and an incorporator and director of the 1939 New York World's Fair.

At the time of Woolley's retirement, Time described American Radiator and Standard Sanitary as the world's largest supplier of heating and plumbing equipment and characterized Woolley's career as a rise from traveling salesman to industrial leader.

Selected works