Background
He left school at age 12 to work as a stock boy at Sprague Electrical Works, which was acquired by General Electric, taking night classes and working up to president in 1939. During World War II he served on the War Production Board as executive vice-chairman in September 1942, supervising the huge U.S. military production effort before resigning in August, 1944 after a bitter jurisdictional dispute with the military. After returning to General Electric and instituting an anti-union campaign, he served President Truman as the chairman of the blue-ribbon President's Committee on Civil Rights in 1946-1947, which recommended new civil rights legislation to protect "all parts of our population".
Read more about this topic: Charles E. Wilson
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)