dillon, clarence douglas
American financier, politician, and arts patron (b. Aug. 21, 1909, Geneva, Switz.-d. Jan. 10, 2003, New York, N.Y.), though a Republican, served as secretary of the treasury (1961-65) under Democratic Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson; Dillon's policies were given credit for the long peacetime economic expansion of those years. Before his years of public service, he was chairman of the international banking company Dillon, Read & Co. (1946-53), and after he left the government, he served as president (1970-77) and, later, chairman (1977-83) of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, where he largely created the Chinese art collection. Dillon was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989.
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| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a chattering or flighty, light-headed person. |
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