Cabot, Godfrey Lowell

Cabot, Godfrey Lowell (1861–1962) industrialist, philanthropist; born in Boston, Mass. He studied chemistry and experimented with carbon black; starting with his first carbon works in West Virginia in 1899, he built up the Cabot Corporation to become the leading producer of that product within the U.S.A., and he prospered through its interests in minerals, energy sources, and industrial research. He traveled widely and was himself a pilot. He directed Boston's puritanical Watch and Ward Society (1920s and 1930s), which blocked certain books, plays, and motion pictures from the public. Among his many philanthropies were large gifts to Harvard and to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.