Charles Baldwin Sawyer

Scientist, Professor and Cofounder of Brush-Wellman

• Find A Grave Memorial # 103470662
• Charles Baldwin Sawyer Papers
• Brush Wellman Inc., Encyclopedia
• Brush-Wellman, Inc., Case Western Reserve
• Lillian H. Baldwin Trust

Sawyer, son of Dr. John Pascal Sawyer and Mary Candee Baldwin, was born July 15, 1894 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. He was a student at Yale College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He married Carol FISHER, daughter of Yale Economist Irving FISHER and Margaret Hazard FISHER in 1921 and with her he had two children, Baldwin SAWYER and Margaret SAWYER. She left him with the two children and moved to Zurich to work with the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.

He married, as 2nd wife, Katherine Beaumont HIRSH, daughter. of Willard Hirsh and Martha Beaumont. She was born in East Cleveland, Ohio in 1908. They wed in Cuyahoga County, Ohio on August 19, 1933. He was married prior and divorced in 1931. He was a physicist.

1933 Marriage Certificate: Charles Baldwin Sawyer, aged 38, married as 2nd wife, with Katherine Beaumont Hirsh, aged 25. He is son of John Pascal Sawyer and Mary Baldwin; she is daughter of Willard Hirsh and Martha Beaumont. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio; she born in East Cleveland. He is a physicist.

Name: Charles Baldwin Sawyer Marriage Date: 19 August 1933 Form Type: Marriage Age: 38 Gender: Male Birth Year: about 1895 Birth Place: Ohio Father's Name: John P Sawyer Mother's Name: Mary Baldwin Spouse's Name: Katherine Beaumont Hirsh Spouse's Age: 25 Spouse's Birth Year: about 1908 Spouse Father's Name: John Pascal Sawyer Spouse Mother's Name: Martha Beaumont

Parents:

• John Pascal Sawyer (1862 - 1945)
• Mary Candee Sawyer (Baldwin) (1864 - 1936)

Burial: Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA Plot: Section 5, lot 32
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biography: Charles Baldwin Sawyer (1895-1964) Charles Baldwin Sawyer was a Cleveland, Ohio scientist and businessman who figured prominently in the early development of the beryllium and Rochell salt industries. Sawyer graduated from Yale University and MIT.

In 1921, Sawyer and Charles F. Brush, Jr. founded the Brush Development Company. Sawyer also founded the Brush Beryllium Company. After World War II, Sawyer was cited by the War Department for the contributions he made toward atomic bomb research. Sawyer helped develop modern uses for beryllium in nuclear physics and in space rockets.

Charles Baldwin Sawyer held many patents and belonged to numerous scientific societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, American Society for Metals, American Physical Society, and the British Institute of Metals.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BRUSH-WELLMAN, INC., formerly the Brush Beryllium Company, is the world's largest processor of beryllium and beryllium compounds.

Incorporated in 1931 by Charles Baldwin Sawyer and Bengt Kjellgren, the company had its origins in the research conducted by Sawyer and Charles Brush, Jr. in the 1920s. Funded by Brush's father, CHARLES BRUSH, the two discovered new uses for the element beryllium, previously thought of as useless, when combined with other metals. Following the deaths of both Charles Brush, Sr. and his son in the late 1920s, the Brush Beryllium Co. soon became a leader in discovering new uses for the lightweight metal, noted for its high melting point, thermal conductivity, and rigidity at elevated temperatures.

Beryllium products, produced at its plant at 4301 Perkins Avenue, made significant contributions to the development of atomic energy and, although the company has never admitted it publicly, there is good evidence to suggest that the company's products were part of key components in the manufacture of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. In addition to the field of atomic energy, beryllium products also found widespread acceptance within the aerospace and electronics industries.

By 1955 company sales of beryllium metal, alloys, oxides, and ceramics had steadily increased to $4.5 million, and then quadrupled by 1960 with its involvement in the space program. When a plentiful supply of beryl ore was found in the Topaz Mts. of Utah, the company organized Beryllium Resources.

In 1971 Brush acquired the S.K. Wellman County, a manufacturer of metallic friction material used in brakes and clutches for heavy-duty off-road equipment, and changed its name to the Brush-Wellman Corp. In 1992 the company's corporate offices were at 1200 the Hanna Bldg., and since 1963 maintained its Beryllium Products Group at 17876 St. Clair Avenue.

By 1987, the company employed about 2,550 workers and had revenues of $308 million in 1987 and by 1999 revenues reached $456 million.

In 2000, Brush-Wellman became the largest wholly-owned subsidiary of the newly formed holding company Brush Engineered Materials and its components continued to find new uses in consumer electronics and communication equipment. Despite widespread application of Beryllium alloys in components as diverse as cellular telephones and automotive airbags, its manufacture has not been without controversy. After Brush's Lorain assembly plant was razed by fire in 1948, former employees and some nearby residents, exposed to beryllium dust developed an incurable lung illness (later called chronic beryllium disease).

A company-funded study of workers at a plant outside of Toledo in 1997 detected the disease or its early development in at least 9.4 percent of those tested and the Energy Department estimates that as many as 20,000 workers may be at risk nationwide. Controversy over the disease, as well as continued conflicts over the cleanup of pollution from cyanide and other industrial solvents at the former site of the S.K. Wellman brake plant in Bedford, led to an agreement with city officials to ban the manufacture of any beryllium alloy products at its plants in Lorain.

U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 1920 United States Federal Census Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records and Indexes, 1810-1973

Ohio Biographies