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Leverone, Nathaniel, 1884-1969

 Person

Biography

Nathaniel Leverone was born on June 26, 1884 in Wakefield, Massachusetts. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Class of 1906, Leverone came to Chicago. He held sales and management positions in a variety of businesses before founding the Canteen Corporation (formerly the Automatic Canteen Corporation), which manufactured and serviced automatic vending machines, in 1929. Leverone stepped down from the chairmanship of the Canteen Corporation in 1960 to pursue philanthropic, civic, and religious endeavors. He died in 1969.

In 1968, Leverone donated $5,000,000 to Northwestern University to fund the construction of a building to house the Graduate School of Business Administration (now the Kellogg Graduate School of Management). According to the University's press release announcing the gift, Leverone made the donation “not only as a friend of Northwestern but to strengthen private higher education and 'to help perpetuate the free enterprise system as an integral part of the American way of life'” (August 15, 1968).

Leverone died on May 29, 1969. On July 8, 1970, Leverone's widow attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Nathaniel Leverone Hall. Mrs. Leverone died on October 31, 1972.

See also Nathaniel Leverone, Pioneer in Automatic Merchandising by Gladys Zehnpfennig (Minneapolis, MN: T.S. Denison & Company, 1963) and The Evolution of Management Education: A History of the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, 1908-1983, by Michael W. Sedlak and Harold F. Williamson (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983.

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:

Nathaniel Leverone Presentation Album

 Collection — Object 1
Identifier: 12/3/13
Abstract

This presentation album was prepared for Mrs. Nathaniel Leverone to acknowledge her late husband's gift to Northwestern University. Materials within the album span the dates August 15, 1968, to September, 1969.

Dates: 1970

[Portrait of Nathaniel Leverone] by unknown, undated

 Item — Item 35: [Barcode: 35551000199969]
Scope and Contents From the Collection: The Northwestern University Library Painting and Artifact Collection contains paintings, prints, artifacts, sculptures, ceramics, and more that have been displayed within Deering and University Libraries. Items are mostly undated and were acquired individually by the library either for display or in some cases as part of an acquired collection over several decades.Artifacts found here include items acquired through purchase or donation intended to be decorative in nature for...
Dates: undated

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