Corporate leader who made USX a giant
A corporate titan whose actions had global impact, Charles A. Corry, the former CEO of Pittsburgh-based USX, was a humble family man at home.
Mr. Corry, a longtime resident of Upper St. Clair, died Thursday. He was 89.
Under Mr. Corry’s leadership, the steel manufacturing company expanded into an oil and gas giant. It was a giant leap from the poverty he experienced as a youth.
Mr. Corry was born in 1932, the only child of Charles and Laurella Corry in Wyoming, Ohio, a Cincinnati suburb. At the age of 5, both of his legs were broken in a car accident, and he was not expected to walk again. He overcame the injury and grew to be an athlete, developing a lifelong love for tennis.
He graduated from the University of Cincinnati and also attended law school there, but he left after a year when he was called to duty on a U.S. Air Force ROTC commission. He served in post-World War II Germany as a navigator with the 50th Fighter Bomber Wing. Following his service, he returned to the University of Cincinnati College of Law and graduated with honors.
“He was a very practical person,” said his daughter Lynn Corry- Roberts, of Peters. “He said he wanted to always have work, so he became a tax attorney.”
He took a job with the American Steel and Wire Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, and advanced in the company with positions in Pittsburgh and New York City.
In 1979, he was appointed vice president of corporate planning. He was the architect of U.S. Steel’s acquisition of the Marathon Oil Company, which transformed the corporation into a major producer of hydrocarbon products. Later, he was named senior vice president and comptroller, then president of a group of diversified divisions and subsidiaries of the company now named USX. In 1988, he was tapped as president of USX and a year later as chairman of the board of directors and CEO of USX.
Ms. Corry-Roberts said that even as a kid, she recognized his interpersonal skills.
“He was a born leader. He used to tell us, ‘I’m not the smartest guy in the room, but I’m the guy that understands people the most,’ ” she said.
Her father traveled a lot, but she said family was his top priority.
“No matter how busy he was, there was never a time when we didn’t have access [to him]. He was like a cruise director, always making up games for my sister, brother and I,” Ms. Corry-Roberts said. “My friends said that while their dads were laying on the couch, our dad was outside playing with the kids.”
During his tenure as CEO, Mr. Corry faced serious business challenges, including a major proxy fight with investor Carl Icahn, who had accumulated a major position among the company’s stockholders. The company overcame Mr. Icahn’s advantage. Ms. Corry-Roberts said she remembers her father’s fight for the employment safety of USX employees.
“As a byproduct of the Depression, it was very important to him that his employees had good jobs and were respected,” she said.
As leader of a major corporation, Mr. Corry participated in many business associations, including the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce and Industry, American Iron and Steel Institute, and National Association of Manufacturers.
He served on the boards of United Way, Junior Achievement and UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, and he was a trustee the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. He was appointed to the Federal Judicial Nominating Commission.
Despite his professional power, Ms. Corry-Roberts said, he was basically “a humble, down-to-earth guy.”
“When his contemporaries had estates, we lived in a Ryan Homes plan,” she said. “Later, [our family] built a house in Upper St. Clair, but he stayed very genuine. He never tried to impress anyone.”
Ms. Corry-Roberts said that even when dropping names, her father minimized his relationship with celebrities he had met through college, the Air Force and USX.
“He didn’t take himself so seriously. He used to say, ‘There are a lot of great people who have known me,’ ” she said.
At the University of Cincinnati, he played on the tennis team with Tony Trabert, who became the No. 1ranked amateur player in the world in 1953 and 1955.
“In Germany, he was adjunct officer to Chuck Yeager, who was a squadron leader at the time,” Ms. Corry-Roberts said. “Dad joked that Chuck once told him, ‘Dammit, Corry, you’re good at this paperwork.’ ”
While at USX, Mr. Corry and Neil Armstrong were traveling to dinner. Mr. Armstrong was behind the wheel and got lost.
“Dad said, ‘How’d you find your way back from the moon?’ ” Ms. Corry-Roberts said.
Members of the corporate world were not aware of her father’s quiet generosity.
“Being a child of the Depression, I think he remained mindful of people who were struggling,” Ms. Corry- Roberts said. “He made anonymous donations to organizations. He once learned about a family that lost their home in a fire. He tracked them down and gave them an envelope of cash. He was a good man.”
Mr. Corry served as a Girl Scout Brownie troop leader and taught his daughters that they could achieve anything.
“He was very committed to the further success of women. He was one of the best feminists I’ve known,” Ms. Corry-Roberts said. “He made us very aware there were no limits.”
During a busy retirement, Mr. Corry and his wife of 59 years, the former Margaret Stuve, of Cleveland, lived on Longboat Key in Florida.
Besides his wife and his daughter Lynn, he is survived by two other daughters — Diane Corry Sladic, of Peters, and Elizabeth Daugherty, of Houston — and seven grandchildren.
A private service will be handled by Beinhauer Funeral Homes. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania.