William Hood Dunwoody

William Hood Dunwoody
portrait of a man in his sixties or seventies wearing a suit seated at a desk
Portrait of William Hood Dunwoody
by Julian Russell Story (1911)
Born(1841-03-14)March 14, 1841
Westtown Township, Pennsylvania, US
DiedFebruary 8, 1914(1914-02-08) (aged 72)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
Occupationbusinessperson
Signature

William Hood Dunwoody (March 14, 1841 – February 8, 1914) was an American banker, merchants, miller, art patron and philanthropist. He was a partner in what is today General Mills and for thirty years a leader of Northwestern National Bank, today's Wells Fargo.[1]

Dunwoody sold American flour to British bakers, creating an export market and environment in which Minneapolis, Minnesota, became for a time the world's center of flour milling.[2][3] By 1901, he was one of sixteen millionaires in Minneapolis.

He is remembered today for his bequests that created the Dunwoody Institute (now the Dunwoody College of Technology), Abbott Hospital (now Allina Health), and The William Hood Dunwoody Fund of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference 100Years was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Commercialobit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Danbom, David B. (2003). "Flour power: the significance of flour milling at the falls" (PDF). Minnesota History. 58 (5–6). Minnesota Historical Society: 270–285. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 1, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2015.