Charles Terrel

Charles Lynn "Chick" Terrel (April 19, 1904 – May 13, 1987) was an American civil servant, economist, and management consultant who served as the first assistant administrator of the Lend-Lease administration during World War II, foreign trade administrator to Greece, and later as a deputy chief of the Mutual Security Agency.

Early life and education

Charles Lynn Terrel was born on April 19, 1904 in De Graff, Ohio, the son of Charles Terrel and Rose B. Pence Terrel. He received a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 1928, and later received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1932.

Career

After earning his business degree, Terrel worked in the manufacturing and banking sectors. From 1926 to 1932, he worked as an engineer with Western Electric and later worked from 1932 to 1936 as an economist with the Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust Company. Outside of his professional work, Terrel was an amateur radio operator with the call sign W9KSG.

Federal service

From 1936 to 1938, he was a staff member of the Federal Communications Commission. From 1938 to 1941, Terrel was a staff member and investigator for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division. In 1940, he delivered a lecture for Duke University regarding the work of the department.

Lend-Lease Administration

During the Second World War, Terrel was appointed to serve as the first assistant administrator of the newly established Lend-Lease Administration. In the post, he led the agency's industrial development division. He recruited Joseph M. Juran (his former Western Electric colleague) to join the agency in December 1941 as his successor.

Beginning in 1942, he was chief of the program control division for the Combined Chiefs of Staff, and served on the staff of the Combined Munitions Assignments Board. In the post, he was responsible for organizing and compiling information for the chiefs of staff of both the U.S. and British forces, and worked closely with Harry Hopkins. In March 1943, Terrel served as chairman of a North African economic board in Algiers, with the rank of auxiliary foreign service officer. During his time in Algiers, he was tasked with re-establishing civilian economic activity in densely-populated areas occupied by the United Nations after the withdrawal of Axis powers, and served as E.R. Stettinius' primary representative in Africa.

During his time in Africa, Terrel oversaw the distribution of Lend-Lease humanitarian supplies, directing the movement of food, clothing, soap, and other essential goods to civilians across the region who had been impacted by the war. Working from Algiers and traveling throughout North Africa, he supervised a program that distributed hundreds of tons of used clothing and millions of dollars' worth of relief materials to civilians, with supplies reaching communities from Morocco and Algeria to Tunisia.

Foreign Trade Administration

Following World War II, Terrel spent three years working under contract with the Greek government on the reorganization of its government, serving as foreign trade administrator by recommendation of the Federal government of the United States. His appointment, initially for three years, placed him in charge of administering approximately $400 million in Marshall Plan congressional appropriations for Greece and Turkey through the Economic Cooperation Administration, with responsibility for directing the importation of goods intended to support the Greek economy.

In his post, Terrel was given considerable latitude over the program, including authority over import and export licenses and supervision of assistants, experts, and field personnel throughout Greece. Terrel worked within this system during the reconstruction of the Greek economy and later recalled the difficulties surrounding Greek foreign trade. In particular, he was involved with efforts to restore Greek exports and recognized the difficulties Greece faced in selling agricultural products, especially tobacco, in European markets. Terrel attempted to introduce a free-import system limited to 12 essential commodities, including wheat, flour, cotton, meat, milk, and sugar. The proposal failed because Greek importers refused to accept it and accused the government of favoring industrialists.

In 1951, Terrell worked with Charles Yost to develop a comprehensive economic reform plan for Greece. During his time in Greece, Terrel criticized some corruption in the country, alleging, for instance, that the Greek Ministry of National Economy was "rotten to the core."

Terrel later recorded his experiences in Remembrances of the American Aid Mission to Greece, a memoir preserved in the Paul R. Porter Papers at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. Prime Minister of Greece Spyros Markezinis described Terrel as "invaluable" and stated that his "work in general was exceptional".

From 1951 to 1953, Terrel served as the deputy chief of the Mutual Security Agency in Taiwan.

Management consultant

For several years following his government service, Terrel worked as a management consultant and international trade consultant for clients including Convair, Arthur D. Little, The Coca-Cola Company, the World Bank Group, and the United States Department of State. In this capacity, Terrel conducted two round-the-world surveys of economic conditions in Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. Terrel also cofounded a frozen food company conglomerate headquartered in Ohio, later serving as company president.

Beginning in 1964, Terrel served as director of division service for the newly founded National Investment Bank for the new republic of Ghana.

From 1968 to 1973, Terrel resided in Seoul, South Korea and served as senior adviser to the Korea Development Finance Corporation, drawing on his experience in industrial finance as the newly established institution expanded its operations. According to a later World Bank assessment, Terrel played a significant role in establishing the organization's project appraisal standards and internal procedures and in training its staff, contributions that "materially helped" develop the corporation into an efficient and well-run financial institution. The World Bank report noted that when Terrel departed in April 1973, KDFC was sufficiently established that its operational standards were maintained, which it attributed to Terrel's earlier contributions.

From the mid 1970s to the 1980s, he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia as an advisor to the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.

Death

Terrel died in 1987, aged 83.

Works

• Management's Challenge in Today's World (1958)
• Remembrances of the American Aid Mission to Greece (1983)