Co-founder (with Edmund C. Lynch) of Merrill Lynch & Company. He came up with a merger plan to help finance supermarket chains such as Safeway.
He attended Amherst College and the University of Michigan Law School.
He had many extramarital affairs and was nicknamed "Good Time Charlie."
He was the grandfather of Safeway CEO and San Francisco Giants manager Peter A. Magowan.
He was a contemporary of fellow entrepreneur Fred Duesenberg.