Charles W. Engelhard Jr.
Charles William Engelhard Jr. was an American businessman, a major owner in Thoroughbred horse racing, and a candidate in the 1955 New Jersey State Senate elections. He controlled an international mining and metals conglomerate, Engelhard, founded by his father.
He has been described as the "Platinum King" and "the world's largest refiner and fabricator of platinum, gold and silver."
Personal life
Engelhard grew up in a twelve-bedroom mansion in Bernardsville, New Jersey called Craigmore. He would say that he never once had a personal conversation with his "very Germanic" father Charles Engelhard Sr. He attended boarding schools in South Africa and Charterhouse School in England. In 1931, he graduated from Christ Church, Oxford University. In 1939, he graduated from Princeton University with a degree in history. During World War II, he served as a bomber pilot with the United States Army Air Forces. In 1947, Engelhard married the widow Jane Mannheimer. Engelhard would adopt Mannheimer's daughter, Anne France Mannheimer, and eventually have four more daughters with his wife.Engelhard was obese and lived like an "Indian Rajah". According to board member Robert Zeller, he "would hold meetings...propped up in bed like a Sun King." He drank Coca-Cola and ate Hershey's Kisses to such an extent that it gave him gout.
Politics
Charles Engelhard was a major contributor to the United States Democratic Party. In 1953, he was an early supporter of Robert B. Meyner's winning gubernatorial campaign. In 1955, he ran for New Jersey State Senate against Malcolm Forbes in the "Battle of the Billionaires", but lost 19,981 to 19,611, a thin margin of 370 votes. In the 1960 presidential election, he led the National Committee of Business and Professional Men and Women for Kennedy and Johnson.Engelhard represented John F. Kennedy at the coronation of Pope Paul VI.
Business
Engelhard's father began purchasing metals firms in 1902 with his wife's dowry. As a young man, Engelhard worked in the business, dealing in platinum, gold, and silver. Upon the death of his father in 1950, Charles Engelhard inherited a $20 million interest in the Engelhard Corporation and eventually grew it to over $200 million. He substantially expanded operations to South Africa, South America and Europe and built it into the world's leading refiner and fabricartor of precious metals. In 1958, he consolidated the various operating companies and issued a public share offering on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1961, Time described him as, "one of the most powerful businessmen in South Africa".As a result of his company's need for gold acquisitions from South African suppliers, Engelhard became a major investor in the country, acquiring gold, copper and coal mining ventures as well as investing in industrial concerns. He set up a publicly traded holding company in the U.S. that raised capital for investments in South African business. The company made investments alone and in conjunction with South African business tycoon Harry Oppenheimer, whose Anglo American company dominated the South African mining industry. Engelhard maintained a residence in South Africa and was elected to Anglo American's Board of Directors. At home, he was criticized by students at Harvard and Rutgers for indirectly supporting the country's apartheid regime.
Engelhard Minerals had dealings with the silver empire of Nelson Bunker Hunt and W. Herbert Hunt and Japanese trading companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi through its trading arm Phillipp Brothers. The company remained very sizable for many years after Engelhard's death.
Shortly before his death in 1971, Engelhard disposed of most of his South African businesses, selling them to Anglo-American companies.
Philanthropy
Charles Engelhard supported numerous humanitarian and benevolent causes in South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Engelhard Dam on the Letaba River in Kruger National Park is named in his honor in gratitude for donations to the South African National Parks Board.In 1969, Engelhard made a $1.25-million gift to Rutgers University Graduate School of Business Administration. As a result, a building on the Newark campus was named after him.
In 1970, Engelhard donated $500,000 to "Boystown" in Kearny, New Jersey. A dormitory and recreation center at the catholic charity center for boys was named after Engelhard.
The Charles Engelhard Foundation, a 501 tax-exempt private foundation headed by his wife after his death and by their children following her death in 2004, provides funding to a wide range of causes including education, medical research, cultural institutions, and wildlife and conservation organizations. It has made major donations to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where the Charles Engelhard Court can be found in its American Wing. The foundation built the library at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Anti-Apartheid protesters prevented the library from being named after him. and has been a generous supporter of a number of University of Montana academic programs. In 1967, he and his wife donated an elaborate 18th-century Neapolitan crêche to the White House.
There is an Engelhard Performing Arts Center and an Engelhard Family Library at the private high school The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia.
In 2018, Influence Watch reported that the foundation allocates money to "left-progressive" organizations including Tides Foundation, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, National Wildlife Federation, and Natural Resources Defense Council.