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Charles Edward Merrill (October 19, 1885 – October 6, 1956) was a philanthropist, stockbroker and one of the founders of Merrill Lynch & Company. Merrill and his friend, Edmund C. Lynch, created Merrill Lynch in 1915. Merrill made his money by investing. He orchestrated the 1926 merger which created the Safeway food chain, then used Merrill Lynch funds to buy competitors and increase Safeway holdings to more than 3,500 stores across the United States by 1931. Merrill was also a major investor S. S. Kresge Corporation, the forerunner of the Kmart Corporation. Merrill anticipated the Stock market crash of 1929, divesting his money before the Great Depression. He had, in fact, pleaded with President Calvin Coolidge (like Merrill, an Amherst alumnus) to speak out against speculation, but Coolidge did not listen to him. In 1939, immediately preceding the boom caused by World War II, Merrill decided to take Merrill Lynch nationwide. He was convinced that the average American who wanted to invest should be able to buy shares in the stock market, which was previously a playground for the wealthy. He instructed his employees to hold seminars at which husbands and wives could leave their children with child care providers while the parents learned how they, too, could invest. Merrill was a well-known philanderer and bon vivant. He was married three times and gained the nickname "Good Time Charlie Merrill". All three of Merrill's children were wealthy from unbreakable trusts made early in childhood. At their father's request, each willingly renounced (in exchange for a token $100) any additional inheritance. Thus Merrill's estate became an engine of philanthropy: Charles Merrill is the namesake of the Merrill Science Center at Amherst College and of Merrill College at the University of California, Santa Cruz, built in 1968. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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