Public Servant, Overseer Dies at 93

Clarence Douglas Dillon ’31, a former Wall Street investment banker, ambassador, Secretary of the Treasury under two presidents and two-time member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers, died last Friday in New York. He was 93.

Described as “one of Harvard’s most distinguished graduates of the 20th century” by Dillon Professor of Government and former Kennedy School of Government dean Graham T. Allison, Dillon served as President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s undersecretary of state for economic affairs for two years and ambassador to France for six.

He was then selected by President John F. Kennedy to be his Secretary of the Treasury. There he played a large part in the trade expansion of the ’60s by introducing legislation to increase exports and control inflation, and spearheaded a large series of tax cuts aimed to stoke economic growth.

One of Dillon’s most crucial roles in United States history, however, had nothing to do with the United States economy. He was picked by Kennedy to be a member of a small council to determine the United States’ response to the Cuban Missile crisis, according to Allison.

“He was included in this little circle of 13 people who were thinking about blowing up the world,” Allison said.

Dillon still took time out to give back to his alma mater.

Allison recalled sending a tape of a presentation on the Cuban Missile crisis that his class had done to Dillon, and that the former Secretary had written him back a “very kind” letter detailing how he himself agreed and disagreed with the presenters.

Dillon served two terms on the Harvard Board of Overseers, the University’s highest governing body, from 1952-58 and from 1966-72, and was President of the body from 1968-72.

During the Commencement of 1959, then University President Nathan M. Pusey ’28 awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, calling him a “great-hearted, staunch-minded servant of order and justice in our country and the world.”

Allison further described Dillon as a man who “represented the best of what we’d wish for in public service from Harvard graduates,” and said he was “very proud to be the Dillon professor.”

The Dillon family has a history of donating to the University. Dillon’s father, Clarence Dillon, gave Harvard the Dillon Field House after the old Locker House burned down in 1930, as well as generous monetary gifts. He established two Kennedy School professorships: the Douglas Dillon Professorship of the Civilization of France, currently held by Susan R. Suleiman and the Clarence Dillon Professorship of International Affairs, which Allison now holds.

Staff writer Laura L. Krug can be reached at krug@fas.harvard.edu.