Charles Schuveldt Dewey, a cousin of
George Dewey, was born in
Cadiz, Ohio, on November 10, 1880, to a prominent family. Dewey moved in infancy to
Chicago, Illinois. He attended public schools,
St. Paul's School,
Concord, New Hampshire, and
Yale University, where he contributed to campus humor magazine
The Yale Record and was a member of
St. Anthony Hall. After graduating from Yale in 1904, he engaged in the real estate business in
Chicago, Illinois, from 1905 to 1917 served in the
United States Navy from 1917 through 1919, being honorably discharged with the rank of senior lieutenant. He served as vice president of the Northern Trust Company of Chicago from 1920 to 1924. Dewey simultaneously served as national treasurer of the American National Red Cross in 1926 and 1927. His son,
A. Peter Dewey, was accidentally shot and killed by
Viet Minh in 1945, making him (arguably) the first person killed in the
Vietnam War. Another son, Charles, Jr., who died at age 65 in 1974, also served in World War II, with the
Office of Strategic Services in China, and was awarded the
Medal of Freedom.
Dewey's house in
North Chicago, Illinois, seized by the government in 1918, was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1985. In 1959 he married the former Elizabeth Zolnay Smith. He was a stepfather to Lucinda Luce Smith and Melissa Tyler Smith, and a grandfather to Charles E, Lucinda K, and John Tyler Treat. His grandson David Alger was killed in the
9/11 attacks. ==References==