Ramsey County History – Fall 1998: “Banker and Philanthropist Richard C. Lilly: The Man Who Led Two Lives”

Banker and Philanthropist Richard C. Lilly: The Man Who Led Two Lives

Author: Virginia Brainard Kunz

Richard Lilly began work on a road crew at age fifteen, after his father was disabled in an accident. By age thirty-three, in 1918, he was president of St. Paul’s second-largest bank. In 1929, he became president of St. Paul’s largest bank, First National, and he led it through the crisis of the Great Depression. He then had a hand in the creation of several signature Twin Cities businesses: Northwest Airlines, Brown & Bigelow, Toro, General Foods, and Control Data. Lilly’s “second life” began in 1938 when he nearly killed himself driving off the High Bridge. He then began a career of philanthropy that included Hazelden and the Christ Child School for Exceptional Children.

PDF of Kunz article