Henry Crown papers

Henry Crown was a self-made billionaire, the son of Jewish immigrants who turned his elder brother's small business supply company into the world's largest building supply firm when he took control in 1921. Colonel Crown was a legendary financier of Chicago, eventually merging his firm - Material Service Corporation - with General Dynamics in the 1950s. He held an immense amount of stock in various companies and acquired coal mines, railroad holdings, and important real estate interests during his life - at one point, he was the sole owner of the Empire State Building. After the death of dear friend, Crown established the W. D. Maxwell scholarship fund at DePauw, which allotted $100,000 to "B" students who rarely got scholarships, as well as the Herman Crown Memorial College Investment League, which was given to a number of schools and allotted a few thousand dollars to senior economics students to practice and learn how to invest.