Early Life
Colson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Inez "Dizzy" (née Ducrow) and Wendell Ball Colson. He was of Swedish and British descent. During World War II, Colson organized fundraising campaigns in his school for the war effort that raised enough money to buy a Jeep for the army.
In 1948, Colson volunteered in the campaign to re-elect then-Governor of Massachusetts, Robert Bradford.
After attending Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge in 1949, he earned his B.A., with honors, from Brown University in 1953, and his J.D., with honors, from George Washington University Law School in 1959. At Brown, he was a member of Beta Theta Pi.
Colson served in the United States Marine Corps from 1953 to 1955, reaching the rank of Captain. From 1955 to 1956, he was Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Material). He then worked on the successful 1960 campaign of Leverett Saltonstall (US Republican Party for the U.S. Senate) and was his Administrative Assistant from 1956 to 1961. In 1961 Colson founded the law firm of Colson & Morin, which swiftly grew to a Boston and Washington, D.C. presence with the addition of former Securities Exchange Commission chairman Edward Gadsby and former Raytheon Company general counsel Paul Hannah. Colson and Morin shortened the name to Gadsby & Hannah in late 1967. Colson left the firm to join the Richard Nixon administration in January 1969.
Colson's first marriage with Nancy Billings, in 1953, bore three children: Wendell Ball II (born 1954), Christian Billings (1956) and Emily Ann (1958). This marriage ended in divorce in January 1964, after some years of separation. He then married Patricia Ann Hughes on April 4, 1964.
Read more about this topic: Charles Colson
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