Stone, Charles H.

19 June 1877–20 Oct. 1963

Charles H. Stone, chemist and pioneer southern dyestuff manufacturer, was born in Stokes County, the son of Thomas J. and Charlotte Venable Stone. He attended the Boonville Academy in Yadkin County and as a young man taught school. In 1904 he became associated with Farben-Fabriken, a German dye manufacturer and importer. During World War I supplies of dyestuffs from Germany were cut off, and Americans were forced to develop their own products for the first time. Stone's thirteen years' experience with dye manufacture proved critically important in the South for the continued availability of dyes. He remained extremely active in this development, eventually moving to Charlotte in 1923 with the Grasselli Dyestuff Company. In 1926 he was general manager of the General Dyestuff Company in Charlotte, where in 1928 he finally established his own dyestuff manufacturing company. Stone's firm was purchased by the American Cyanamid Company in 1937.

Active in many civic and professional groups, Stone in 1929 initiated and led the movement for the city manager form of government in Charlotte. In 1943 he led the movement for the establishment of the Carolina-Piedmont Section of the American Chemical Society. He served as president (1939) and district governor (1944) of the Rotary Club, president of the Charlotte Community Chest (1940–41), and chairman of the Charlotte Parks and Recreation Commission (1941–47). He left a bequest for the establishment of the Charles H. Stone Scholarship Fund (later the Charles H. Stone Award of the American Chemical Society) and for the Charles H. Stone professorships of chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Stone was a member of Myers Park Methodist Church. He and his wife, Clara Kouns McKay Stone, had no children.