Category: Charity and Philanthropy

CONNERS, WILLIAM RANDALL (4 Oct. 1878-22 Jan. 1942) was founder and first executive secretary of the the Negro Welfare Association (URBAN LEAGUE OF CLEVELAND) who gained national attention for his efforts to improve conditions for AFRICAN AMERICANS.

The CONSUMERS LEAGUE OF OHIO, founded in 1900 in Cleveland as a women's organization, has contributed to the welfare of workers of both sexes nationwide through education, direct action, and legislative reform. With state headquarters in Cleveland's Statler Office Tower (1993), the league is affiliated with the National Consumers League.

CONTRACTOR'S ASSISTANCE CORP. See FAIR HOUSING PROGRAMS.


COOLEY, HARRIS REID (18 Oct. 1857-24 Oct. 1936), minister and reform leader, was born to Laura Reid and LATHROP COOLEY in Royalton, Ohio, graduated with a B.A. from Hiram College in 1877, and with a M.A. from Oberlin College in 1880.

CORCORAN, CHARLES LESLIE (8 Sept. 1878-22 Dec. 1958) was a banker, businessman, prominent Catholic layman and original board and founding member of the Catholic Charities Corporation of which he served as president.

CORLETT, SELENE (13 Oct. 1864-8 Feb.1943) was a milliner and dressmaker who organized a training school which prepared 260 women to work in hospitals, factories, at the AMERICAN RED CROSS, CLE CHAPTER, and on streetcars during WORLD WAR I.

The COTILLION SOCIETY OF CLEVELAND, a private social nonprofit organization, was inaugurated at a meeting of 28 charter members on 9 Feb. 1964 at the MAYFIELD COUNTRY CLUB. The first officers included Chas. W. Steadman, chairman; Wm. Feather, Jr., 1st vice-chairman; Henry J. Nave, 2nd vice-chairman; Keith S. Benson, secretary; and Robt. Berger, Jr., treasurer.

The COUNCIL FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES (CEO) IN GREATER CLEVELAND, 1350 W. 3rd St., was established in 1964 to develop, administer, and coordinate Pres. Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty program locally. Under the leadership of Ralph W. Findley until 1979, the federally financed Cleveland CEO established a number of lasting programs.

COYNE, RICHARD FRANCIS (September 5, 1935 - August 23, 2014) was the founder and first president of the GREAT LAKES SCIENCE CENTER in Cleveland, OH. He was born to Frank W. and Kathryn (McDonald) Coyne in Scranton, PA.

CRAIG, LILLIAN (12 June 1937-14 Nov. 1979), a leader in the local welfare-rights movement and founder of the Natl. Welfare Rights Organization (1967), was born in Cleveland to an abusive, alcoholic father, placed in foster care at 14 after her mother's death, then sent to Marycrest School for Girls. She had to refuse a scholarship to St. John's College because it made no allowances for living expenses.

CRAWFORD, FREDERICK COOLIDGE, (19 March 1891-9 Dec. 1994) successful businessman, promoter of aviation, and collector of vintage automobiles, was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, the son of Fred E. and Mattie Coolidge Crawford. He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1913, and received a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from the school the following year.

CUNIN, JOHN (11 Sept. 1924-18 July 1993), who served as the chairman and chief executive officer of BEARINGS, INC., was also known for his involvement with numerous civic and charitable causes.

CUNIN, MARILYN McGUIGAN (August 15, 1930 - April 4, 2017) served as chair of the Distribution Committee for the  EVA L. AND JOSEPH M. BRUENING FOUNDATION from 1993-2008.

The short-lived CUYAHOGA COUNTY ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY was organized on 4 July 1837 at a meeting in FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, but had disappeared by the 1840s. "The object of this society," according to its constitution, was "the entire abolition of slavery throughout the U.S.

The CUYAHOGA COUNTY COLONIZATION SOCIETY formed at the Academy on 8 Jan. 1827. The society favored ending slavery by colonization: the U.S. government would buy slaves from their masters and transport the freed blacks (see AFRICAN AMERICANS) to Africa.

The CUYAHOGA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES, formed 1 Jan. 1948 as the Welfare Dept., assists and supervises the county's disabled and disadvantaged. The governmental division was preceded by several private and governmental efforts at providing WELFARE/RELIEF. The Welfare Dept.'s establishment by county commissioners John F. Curry, John J. Pekarek, and Joseph F.

The CUYAHOGA COUNTY SABBATH SOCIETY was a mid-19th-century organization dedicated to preserving the Sabbath as a sacred day of rest. The Annals of Cleveland mention only one meeting of the society, but the resolutions adopted at that 10 Mar. 1844 gathering at a Baptist church suggest that the large audience had strong concerns. With lawyer and reformer JOHN A.

The CUYAHOGA COUNTY TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, organized on 31 Mar. 1830, was the first recorded temperance group in Cleveland. It was a branch of the American Temperance Society, the first national temperance group, organized in 1826. In Oct. 1841, the society became the Cuyahoga County Total Abstinence Society, but contemporary newspapers called it by its old and new names.

The CUYAHOGA COUNTY UNIT OF THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY has raised money for cancer research, both locally and nationally, educated the public on cancer, and served those suffering from cancer. The Cuyahoga County Unit developed from the Cleveland advisory board of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, Inc. It became a chapter of the newly formed American Cancer Society in the mid-1940s.

DALTON, HENRY GEORGE (3 Oct. 1862-27 Dec. 1939) was an industrialist, business and civic leader and philanthropist.

Dalton was born in Cleveland to Frederick and Ellen (Gordon). He attended Cleveland public schools until age 14 when he went to work on WHISKEY ISLAND for the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad.

The DAUBY CHARITY FUND was founded in 1944 in Cleveland by NATHAN L. DAUBY, to support general charitable causes, primarily in Cuyahoga County. Upon Dauby's death, grants from his estate went to Western Reserve Univ. (see CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIV.), the Cleveland Hearing & Speech Ctr., and the Natl.

DAUBY, NATHAN L. (31 May 1873-17 May 1964), who built the MAY CO. into the city's largest department store, was born in Cleveland to David and Lena Loeb Dauby. He started work at 15 as a clerk in shoe store, and became its manager 2 years later. In 1892, Dauby and Emil Strauss opened Dauby & Strauss, the city's first one-price shoe store.