Rufus C. Dawes

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Rufus Cutler Dawes (July 30, 1867 – January 8, 1940) was a American businessman from a prominent Ohio family.

Dawes was born in Marietta, Ohio, to American Civil War Brigadier General Rufus R. Dawes and Mary Beman (Gates) Dawes. He was a younger brother of Charles G. Dawes and great-grandson of Revolutionary War figure William Dawes. Two other brothers were also nationally known - Beman Gates Dawes and Henry May Dawes. His middle name, Cutler, was in honor of one of his father's Civil War colleagues in the Iron Brigade, Lysander Cutler.

Dawes graduated from Marietta College with an A.B. in 1886 and A.M. in 1889. He married Helen B. Palmer on June 3, 1893. He was active in many gas and lighting utilities, becoming president of the Union Gas & Electric Company, Metropolitan Gas & Electric Company, and Dawes Brothers, Inc.

He became involved in public service in 1918, serving on the Illinois State Pension Laws Commission (1918-1919). In 1920, he was selected as a delegate to the Illinois constitutional convention. He was asked by his brother Charles to serve on the experts commission preparing the Dawes Plan in 1924. Because of this work, Dawes was again asked to work on the reparations problem, this time as assistant to Owen D. Young (see the Young Plan).

Dawes was a member of The Commercial Club of Chicago, and, in fact, served as president of the Club in 1925-26.

As a distinguished and active Commercial Club member, it was natural for Sears, Roebuck & Company chairman Julius Rosenwald and The Commercial Club's executive committee to choose Dawes to be one of the first trustees of the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in 1926. He was active in the Museum Corporation's management from the very beginning, with MSI founder Julius Rosenwald; U.S. Gypsum Company president Sewell Avery; and Mr. Rosenwald's attorney, Leo F. Wormser. Dawes helped brief once and future New York Times science editor Waldemar Kaempffert when the latter became the first Executive Director of MSI in 1928.

In 1932, Dawes was appointed president of A Century of Progress World's Fair. From 1934 until his death in 1940, Dawes was concurrently president of the world's fair organization and the Museum of Science & Industry. Dawes was the third president of MSI after Sewell Avery and William Rufus Abbott.

During World War II, the United States Navy commissioned a Liberty Ship, the SS Rufus C. Dawes, in 1943. It was scrapped in 1968.