Airline
In 1928, Grace and Pan American Airways jointly formed Pan American-Grace Airways known as Panagra, establishing the first air link between the North and South America, that began operation in 1929.
On the death of William R. Grace in 1904, he was succeeded by William L. Sauders as company President followed by Joseph Peter Grace, Sr. (1872-1950) who became president in 1907. J. Peter Grace, Jr. took over management of the company after his father suffered a stroke in 1945.
In 1954, the company bought Davison Chemical Company (founded by William T. Davison as Davison, Kettlewell & Company in 1832), and the Dewey & Almy Chemical Company (founded in 1919 by Bradley Dewey and Charles Almy).
The company bought a 53% stake in Miller Brewing in 1966, for $36 million; Lorraine Mulberger sold the stake for religious reasons. It sold the Miller stake in 1969 to Philip Morris for $130 million, topping a deal with PepsiCo for $120 million.
In 1987, by locating a can sealing plant in Shanghai, Grace became the first wholly foreign-owned company to do business in The People's Republic of China.
Grace's corporate headquarters are in Columbia, Maryland. Although W. R. Grace commissioned the Grace Building in New York City, built in 1971, the company no longer has any offices at that location.
Read more about this topic: W. R. Grace And Company
Famous quotes containing the word airline:
“My job as a reservationist was very routine, computerized ... I had no free will. I was just part of that stupid computer.”
—Beryl Simpson, U.S. employment counselor; former airline reservationist. As quoted in Working, book 2, by Studs Terkel (1973)