Carl Swift Hallauer papers

Carl Swift Hallauer was born in Rochester, New York, on January 5, 1894, the son of Frank and Hattie Hallauer. Orphaned at the age of nine, Hallauer became a newspaper boy to support himself. His formal education was necessarily brief; he attended West High School for one year before he was forced to quit school to go to work. At sixteen, he started working at Kodak Park as a freight handler, and thereafter, he took night classes at Rochester Institute of Technology from 1912 to 1916 and at Rochester business Institute during the year of 1916.

While Hallauer worked at Kodak Park, he developed one of the first industrial recreational programs in the United States and became part of their Industrial Relations Department. In 1919, he left Kodak and went to work at Bausch & Lomb Inc., as manager of their Industrial Relations Department. In 1929, he was transferred to the Sales Department and moved steadily up the corporate ladder. He became Vice President in 1935, Executive Vice President in 1951, President in 1954, Chairman of the Board in 1959, and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors in 1969, as well as serving as a director of Bausch & Lomb subsidiary companies of Brazil, Canada, and England. He was also director of Canadian Thoroughbred Racing Associations, Community Savings Bank, Lincoln Rochester Trust Company, and Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation.

Hallauer's political activities were as extensive as his business interests. While still a teenager, he became active ward worker for the Republican Party and advanced rapidly within the organization. Although his friends urged him to play a direct role in the policy-making process, he refused to run for political office, preferring to remain on the sidelines as a private citizen. Nevertheless, he was still very active in his party and numbered many well-known politicians as friends. From 1919 to the time of his death, he was a delegate to the New York State Republican Conventions, and from 1932 to 1964, he was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions. He also served as a member of the Electoral College in the 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1948 presidential elections.

Hallauer was known for his zest for living and the keen interest that he took in people. Accordingly, he was active in numerous philanthropic, cultural, educational, and religious organizations. He was a director of the Rochester Community Chest and the Salvation Army, an honorary trustee of St. John's Home for the Aging, Chairman of the Police Benevolent Fund, a trustee of Rochester Institute of Technology, and a founder and trustee of Monroe Community College, to name just a few.

He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including an honorary Sc.D. from Clarkson College of Technology in 1947, and honorary L.L.D. from Alfred University in 1955, the Horatio Alger Award from the Committee of American Schools and Colleges in 1960, and the S.A.M.A. Award from the Scientific Apparatus Makers Association as Scientific Industries' Man of the Year in 1961.

On June 22, 1918, Hallauer married Florence Bausch. The couple had one child, Nancy (Bausch-Hallauer) Johnson in 1923. Mr. Hallauer died on November 6, 1971, at the age of 77.