In 1977, H. Stuart Harrison (1909–1980) retired as chairman of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, which under his leadership had grown from a moderate-size firm to one of the largest independent ore producers. After graduating from Yale University with a degree in finance and economics during the depths of the Depression, Harrison took a job as a steelworker in the Corrigan-McKinney Steel plant where his father was an executive. He switched to the banking profession and landed a job as a steel industry analyst for an investment firm in New York. One of Harrison’s reports so impressed the president of Cleveland-Cliffs that he hired him to manage the company’s investments. From 1937 to 1960 Harrison rose through the ranks to president, then to chief executive officer in 1961 and board chairman in 1974.

Harrison’s civic activities were legion. He served as chairman of the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority, president of the Children’s Aid Society, president of University School and the Yale Scholarship Committee and vice chair of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. He co-founded and chaired the Businessmen’s Interracial Committee, sat on the finance committee of the Cleveland Institute of Art, and served as chair of University Circle Inc., vice chair of University Hospitals, and trustee of the Federation for Community Planning, United Way Services and Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival.