Matthew Norton Clapp (April 15, 1906 – April 22, 1995) was an American businessman and philanthropist who served as chairman of the Weyerhaeuser Corporation.
Early life and career
Clapp was born in Pasadena, California. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Matthew G. Norton, a lumberman whose company, the Laird Norton Company, helped finance the Weyerhaeuser's purchase of timberland in Washington State in 1900.[1]
He practiced law in Tacoma from 1929 to 1942.[1] In 1937, he was among the developers of Lakewood Colonial Center in what is now Lakewood, Washington.[3] It was one of the first shopping centers west of the Mississippi River.[3] In 1938, he converted an existing structure into the Lakewood Ice Arena.[3] He became a trustee of the University of Puget Sound in 1933 and served until his death, including as chairman from 1967 to 1986.[1]
Clapp began his career with Weyerhaeuser in 1938.[1] During World War II, he served in the United States Navy until 1946, when he returned to Weyerhaeuser.[1] In 1947, he succeeded his father as a director of the company.[1] He served as president from 1960 to 1966 and as chairman from 1966 to 1970.[1]
Civic service and community builder and investor
In 1949, he co-founded the Medina Foundation, which provides charitable grants throughout the Puget Sound region.[1]
He was elected to the board of trustees of the University of Chicago in 1957 and was named a life trustee in 1970.[2]
Clapp married several times and had many children, including three sons whom he outlived.[5] His second wife, Evelyn, and stepdaughter, Gail Gardner, were killed in the crash of Pacific Air Lines Flight 7 near Santa Barbara, California, in 1951.[6][7][8] Evelyn's son, Booth Gardner, served as governor of Washington from 1985 to 1993, and Clapp contributed $91,000 to Gardner's first gubernatorial campaign in 1984.[9][10]
In 1984, he married his son Jim's former wife, Jacquie.[11] When he died at his home in Medina, Washington, April 22, 1995, Forbes estimated his fortune at $450 million.[5]
