Charles L. Hutchinson

Hutchinson was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1854 to Benjamin P. Hutchinson (1828-1899) and Sarah (née Ingalls) Hutchinson (1833-1909), and relocated with his family to Chicago in 1856 after a brief stay in Milwaukee. In Chicago Benjamin Hutchinson founded Chicago Packing & Provision Co., which for many years was the leading meat processor in the United States. In 1863 he became one of the first directors of the First National Bank of Chicago and in 1881 founded the Corn Exchange Bank (with subsequent mergers and acquisitions now Bank of America) and as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade was known as one of the city's wealthiest and most colorful speculators. Charles graduated from the Chicago public schools in 1872 and entered the business world as a clerk in his father's office, becoming a junior partner with his father in 1875 in the firm B.P. Hutchinson and Son., commission merchants. Although he never attended college, he was a founding trustee and the first treasurer of the University of Chicago, positions he held until his death. He married Frances Angeline Kinsley, daughter of Herbert Milton Kinsley, on May 26, 1881. Herbert Kinsley had, in the last decades of the 19th Century, become one of Chicago's premier caterers and restaurateurs after having made his reputation during his peripatetic career in part by hosting a ball for the Prince of Wales at the Anglo-American Hotel in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.

Because of his contributions to the world of philanthropy, art and education Hutchinson was twice awarded honorary degrees by Tufts University, the first one a being a Master of Arts in 1901, and the second one an LL.D in 1920. Hutchinson was also the recipient of an honorary Master of Arts degree by Harvard University in 1915.

For his service as consul general for Greece in Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition, Hutchinson was awarded the Badge of the Order of the Redeemer by King George I of Greece in 1908. He was granted a knighthood by King Albert I of Belgium in 1919 for his work with the Belgian Relief Committee during World War I, and was a supporter of the founding of the League of Nations at the war's end.

Hutchinson served as Chairman, Committee of Fine Arts for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.

Business/commercial

Chicago Board of Trade, president

Chicago City Railway Co., director

Commercial Club of Chicago, President, Vice-President, Treasurer

Corn Exchange Bank, president

Northern Trust Bank, director

State Bank of Chicago (after mergers Chase Bank), founding director,

Western Stone Company, director

Religious

St. Paul's Universalist Church, Sunday school superintendent, president

Philanthropic/reform

American Vigilance Association, executive secretary and general counsel

Chicago Nursery and Half-Orphan Society, president

Chicago Orphan Asylum, president

Chicago Peace Society, treasurer

Hull House, director, treasurer

Illinois Society for Mental Hygiene, treasurer

Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness, president

Immanuel Woman's Home Association, treasurer

Immigrant's Protective League, treasurer

Oakhaven Old People's Home (now Smith Senior Living), Committee of 100

Old People's Home of the City of Chicago, trustee

Presbyterian Hospital, trustee

Rush Medical College, treasurer