Charles O. Staples ’59

MIT is family to Chuck Staples ’59. His father and brother were alumni, as is his grandson. His late wife, Katherine Maclaurin Staples, was the granddaughter of Richard C. Maclaurin, president of MIT from 1908 to his death in 1920; it was during his presidency that the Institute moved from Boston to Cambridge and Building 10 (with its iconic Great Dome) and adjacent buildings framing Killian Court were built. “From the beginning, I loved MIT and got very involved,” says Chuck, whose commitment earned him the Lobdell Award for Distinguished Service from the MIT Alumni Association in 1996. Now retired, he was CEO of Thornton Associates, which was founded by Professor Dick Thornton, SM ’54, ScD ’57, to monitor the purity of water used in semiconductor manufacturing. He aims to support MIT entrepreneurship education through a charitable remainder trust. Chuck and his family also endowed the Staples Family Scholarship, and he enjoys reading letters from recipients.

On celebrating the 2016 centennial of MIT’s move across the Charles River: “At President Rafael Reif’s invitation, I rounded up the Maclaurin family, and 32 of us came over on the presidential boat from Boston to Cambridge. It was fantastic. We loved it. Our relationship with MIT keeps growing.”

On MIT’s problem-solving mission: “I’ve always been fascinated by the World Economic Forum that meets in Davos, Switzerland, every spring. An economist who has played a leading role there tells me that while most come to the conference to study the problems affecting the world, MIT comes to solve the problems, not just talk about them. In terms of making the world a better place, MIT makes more contributions than any other institution I know.”

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