Norman H. Stone*
Class of 1974
- Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Stone Container Corporation
Giving a helping hand to those who need it most is gratifying and humbling.
Norman Stone was born into a poor Chicago family in the early 1900s. In his youth, he delivered papers, turning most of his weekly 50-cent salary over to his mother to help support the family. At age 13, he dropped out of school and worked as a messenger for Western Union for $4 a week.
At age 15, Stone became a messenger at Sears Roebuck for $6 a week. When he was transferred to the office systems department at Sears, he devised a more efficient way of handling the mail and was promoted to head office boy, earning $8 a week by age 17.
In 1926, he went into business with his ailing father as a jobber of paper and twine, founding Stone Container Corporation. Established with only $750 in capital, the new company had sales of $68,000 the first year, later growing to revenues more than $200 million in 1974.