Tribute to Charles Newton Cone

Today we are celebrating the 118th anniversary of my grandfather Charles Newton Cone's birth near Worthington, Nobles County, Minnesota. The son of Frederick Naaman and Helen Brown (Newton) Cone, he was their fourth child and second son. Before he was two the family relocated, with his Newton grandparents and his great grandfather John Champion Clarke, to Mapleton, Utah.

Charles Newton Cone circa 1899 from family collection.

The family were Presbyterians in a community that was overwhelmingly Mormon. He said that he often felt ostracized by his neighbors which made both his biological and church family paramount in his youth. In fact, it was through the generosity of the Springville Presbyterian Church that he was able to study at Fairmont College in Wichita, Kansas (now Wichita State University) and earn his bachelor's degree in Chemistry.

Circa 1925 in Seattle, Washington

Working as a research chemist, and business developer was very important to Granddaddy. He worked for several companies, watching them reap the material rewards for patents he developed before he founded his own Pacific Adhesives Company (PACO).

We remember the grandfather who read us stories or carried us piggyback on endless walks through his neighborhood. Each time we visited our Cone grandparents in Oregon, a visit to PACO was included. It was important to him, and our parents, that we know the work that was being done, see his laboratory, offices, and manufacturing plant. It was fascinating, but the glue they produced for the plywood industry was made from blood and hundreds of stacks of 50 pound bags of dried blood do not smell very good. We perfected the ability to follow him on the facility tour without breathing through our noses.

Charles Newton Cone 1898-1988
circa 1987 at home of son Charles Newton Cone, Jr. in  Charlotte, North Carolina.

It is always interesting to know what friends and colleagues thought of our ancestors. They had different relationships with them than we did as family members. Going through some papers recently, my brother found this tribute to our grandfather Charles Newton Cone.

He worked until a month before his death, 27 January 1988. He was a very special man and I think of him often.

Cecily Cone Kelly
6 December 2016