Denison University - Adytum Yearbook (Granville, OH)

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Mr. Sherwin is a man of broad fellow-feeling. The health, morals and education of all who are employed in the qreat works, are g ' ven the most careful consideration. Two floors of one building are devoted exclusively to lunch rooms and kitchen, where a carefully selected bill of fare is served at cost. Rest rooms for girls and employees are comfortably furnished. Provision is made for a sick and death benefit society, member- ship in which comprises almost the entire corps of employees. Club rooms, recreation facilities, reading rooms, game rooms and a circulating library are generously equipped. The thought- fulness applied to every detail which can effect comfort, sanita- tion and efficiency have made the works of the Sherwin-Wil- liams Co. one of the models of the manufacturing world. In civic affairs Mr. Sherwin realizes that no man lives to himself alone, nor can he shirk a fair share of responsibility, al- though he himself exceeds this, in that he constantly demon- strates to the community the advantage as well as the pleasure of realizing the best. So emphatically is this a very part of his nature that wherever he goes and in whatever he engages, imme- diately improvements begin. In addition to his own business, he has for years been an portant advisor in the financial interests of his city, holding of- ficial positions in the Cleveland Trust Co., Society for Savings, and First National Bank. He is enthusiastically interested in the business possibilties of his city and is intimately related to the leading commercial forces, — The Chamber of Commerce and the Union Club. He is a lover of life in the out of doors. In his earlier years he was an expert angler and a member of one of the most noted fishing clubs. In these later years he takes great delight in his model farm — Windom. He is a lover of books as well. He has become a man of wide general culture and his library contains some rare and val- uable collections. The religious life of Mr. Sherwin has been persistent and profound, from his early years. For almost a half century he has been an active member of the First Baptist Church of Cleve- land and one of its generous supporters. His beneficence is cheerfully extended to the needs of the city, to his country and the wider world. He has been for years officially indentified with the work of the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., and our own Denison University. Among his fellows in the business world, no man sustains a higher reputation for integrity and ability. Kindly and ap- proachable, he impresses one with his genuine sincerity; quiet and courteous in manner, yet he is positive and loyal to his high ideals of right; democratic and generous, valuing men by the aristocracy of worth rather than of birth ; through all his pos- sessions and successes, he demonstrates a splendid type of suc- cessful American christian manhood. 5

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Henry Alden Sherwin Among the men who have achieved conspicuous distinction in the commercial, financial and industrial world, a foremost place must be given to Mr. Henry A. Sherwin, one of Ohio ' s most successful business men and one of the prominent manufac- turers of the world. Mr. Sherwin was born September 27, 1842, in a remote village of the Green Mountain State, at Baltimore, Vt. His parents were representatives of the Old New England Families of Puritan ancestry — thrifty, frugal and of high moral character. The atmosphere of his early boyhood ' s days was the kind in which self-reliance, steadiness of purpose and sterling character grow. He was an only child and was compelled to develop his growing life in the companionship of his parents, more than of playmates. Reverence for holy things, the constant faith in a Heaven- ly Father, the sacredness of the Word of God as daily taught by father and mother, laid the foundation of that moral earn- estness which has ennobled all the after years. His secular education, preparatory to his life work, was limited to the ad- vantages of the neighborhood school, which he attended until he was fifteen years of age, when the school books were laid aside and his business career began. His first position was that of errand-boy and clerk m a gen- eral store and from the beginning his service was character- ized by a persistency and an energy which clearly expressed his determination to get on. In 1 860 he came to Ohio and for a time was employed as a clerk in a drygoods store at a meager salary. His careful ob- servance of detail brought him rapid promotion and he soon be- came head-bookkeeper. He left this position and became an associate in a wholesale grocery concern. Failing, however, to find this business wholly congenial, in 1866 he engaged in the sale of paints, colors and varnishes. Here he found his oppor- tunity. The business rapidly grew. In 1870 he formed a partnership with Mr. E. P. Williams and plans were developed for manufacturing. From this time forward, the advance and widening of the interests were constant until the firm name of Sherwin-Williams Co. is known the world around. Mr. Sherwin has from the beginning been a careful student of minutest details. He has had an abiding faith that truth and honesty were a business man ' s most valuable asset. He laid down as a foundation policy that only the best products that could be made should leave his establishment. His idea of high quality has been persistently maintained throughout the years. Upon this he has builded his splendid successes. 4

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THE HILL TODAY 6