Thomas Dudley Cabot

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox person Thomas Dudley Cabot (May 1, 1897<ref name=MITObit/> – June 8, 1995<ref name=SignalCorps/>) was an American businessman. He also became the U.S. Department of State's Director of Office of International Security Affairs.<ref name=DoSRoles>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Cabot was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father was Godfrey Lowell Cabot,<ref name=MITObit/> founder of Cabot Corporation<ref name=CabotCorpFounder>Template:Cite web</ref> and a philanthropist. His mother was Maria Moors Cabot.<ref name=MITObit/> Cabot was named after Thomas Dudley, the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony who signed the charter creating Harvard College.<ref name=DudleyHarvCharter>Template:Cite web</ref> Two of his siblings were John Moors Cabot<ref name=NYTObit/> (b. 1901), U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, Colombia, Brazil, and Poland during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administration,<ref name=GovRoles>Template:Cite web</ref> and Eleanor Cabot of the Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate.<ref name=EleanorCabotBradley>Template:Cite book</ref>

Cabot graduated from Browne & Nichols School in 1913.<ref name=BBNalum>Template:Cite web</ref> He took some courses at Boston Tech (now known as Massachusetts Institute of Technology)<ref name=MITObit/> and Curtiss Flying School,<ref name=FlightSchool>Template:Cite web</ref> becoming a World War I flight instructor at Kelly Field in the U.S. Army Signal Corps,<ref name=SignalCorps>Template:Cite web</ref> before graduating cum laude from Harvard University with a SB in Engineering, in 1919.<ref name=MITObit/>

Career

Upon graduation, Cabot started working for Cabot Corporation,<ref name=MITObit/> founded by his father. He was CEO of Cabot Corporation from 1922 to 1960, when he relinquished active control of the company,<ref name=NYTObit/> and went to his Boston office as director emeritus on a regular basis until his death.<ref name=MITObit/>

Cabot was also a longtime director of United Fruit Company, and became its president in 1948 in hopes of reformation, but resigned in 1949.<ref name=NYTObit/> His brother John Moors Cabot was a major shareholder of United Fruit,<ref name=JMCabotUFCMajorShareholder>Template:Cite web</ref> as was another family member, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.,<ref name=HCabotLodgeUFCMajorShareholder>Template:Cite web</ref> who also served as a director of United Fruit.<ref name=HCabotLodgeUFCDirector>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1951, Cabot was U.S. Department of State's Director of Office of International Security Affairs during the Truman administration,<ref name=MITObit/> where he spoke for the State Department on NATO affairs, was in charge of a U.S. program arming allies throughout the world,<ref name=DoSRoles/> and supervised the disbursement of $6 billion in foreign economic and military aid.<ref name=NYTObit/> In 1953, he also served as consultant on a special development mission in Egypt.<ref name=DoSRoles/>

In 1960, a Central Intelligence Agency cover<ref name=GibraltarCIACoverTimeMag>Template:Cite magazine</ref> called Gibraltar Steamship Company (which didn't own any steamships and whose president was Cabot)<ref name=GibraltarNoSteamships&PresPopComm>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref name=GibraltarNoSteamships&PresSchoultzBook>Template:Cite book Pg. 608</ref> owned and established Radio Swan on Swan Island, a covert black operation<ref name=GibraltarNoSteamships&PresPopComm/> to win supporters for U.S. policies and discredit Fidel Castro.

Cabot,<ref name=Mega.nuCFRA-E>Template:Cite web</ref> his brother John Moors Cabot,Template:Citation needed another family member Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.,<ref name=Mega.nuCFRL-R>Template:Cite web</ref> and Cabot's son, Louis Wellington Cabot,<ref name=Mega.nuCFRA-E/> were all Council on Foreign Relations members inducted in 1992.

Philanthropic work

Cabot also served on the Harvard Board of Overseers, was a Director of the Harvard Alumni Association and significant benefactor of the university, and recipient of a Harvard Medal and honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1970.<ref name=SignalCorps/> In 1985, Harvard's Cabot House was named in honor of Cabot and his wife.<ref name=CabotHouseHist>Template:Cite web</ref> The Cabot Science Complex is also named in their honor.<ref name=SignalCorps/>

Cabot had many ties to MIT and was the longest serving member of the MIT Corporation, serving for 49 consecutive years.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> He was elected a Life Member of the Corporation in 1951 and Life Member Emeritus in 1972. As part of his MIT Corporation work he served on many Corporation Standing and Visiting Committees.<ref name=":0" />

He established the Thomas Dudley Cabot Scholarship Fund at MIT in 1960 and in 1977 members of his family honored him by endowing the Thomas Dudley Cabot Institute Chair.<ref name=":0" /> He and his wife established the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot chair, in 1986, following his family's legacy of MIT involvement. His grandfather, Dr. Samuel Cabot, was a Boston citizen who supported the founding of MIT and his father, Godfrey L. Cabot, graduated from MIT in 1881.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Godfrey L. Cabot also supported the Institute by establishing the Godfrey L. Cabot Solar Energy Fund.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Writings

• Quick-Water and Smooth: A Canoeist's Guide to New England Rivers, 1935
• Beggar on Horseback: The Autobiography of Thomas D. Cabot, 1979
• Avelinda: The Legacy of a Yankee Yachtsman, 1991

Personal life

Cabot was married to Virginia Wellington Cabot for 75 years, from 1920 to his death in 1995. They resided in Weston, Massachusetts for seventy-five years,<ref name=NYTObit/> and had five children: Louis Wellington Cabot, businessman, philanthropist, former Chairman of Federal Reserve Bank of Boston,<ref name=LouisCabotFedRes>Template:Cite news</ref> Thomas Dudley Cabot Jr.,<ref name=MITObit/> Robert Moors Cabot,<ref name=MITObit/> Dr. Edmund Billings Cabot,<ref name=MITObit/> Andover star and retired surgeon,<ref name=EdmundBCabotAndover>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=EdmundBCabotSurgeon>Template:Cite web</ref> and Linda Cabot Black, cofounder of Opera Company of Boston and Opera New England.<ref name=LindaCabotBlack>Template:Cite news</ref> in his 80s he lost the sight of an eye in a cross-country skiing accident, but he retained his enthusiasm for the active life. He and his wife, who celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary were tramping the mountains of Colorado. They also had 29 grandchildren, and 23 great-grandchildren. Virginia Cabot died in 1997 at Phillips House in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She was 97.