For more than 150 years, the Sherwin-Williams Company has led the way in paint and coating on an international scale. The Cleveland-based manufacturer has been an enduring supporter of Case Western Reserve—including a $1 million gift for research at the university’s Institute for Advanced Materials in 2015—and attributes some of its earliest success to co-founder Edward Williams (WRC 1864; GRS 1869), a double alumnus of Western Reserve College.
Williams served in the Civil War as part of Company B in the 85th regiment of Ohio, which primarily guarded Confederate prisoners in Columbus, Ohio. The company was composed of Western Reserve College students and faculty members who received training on campus under U.S. Army Officer Charles A. Young amid the uncertainty of the Civil War.
