Charles E. Merrill, Jr.

Charles Edward Merrill Jr. (August 17, 1920 – November 29, 2017) was an American educator, author, and philanthropist, best known for supporting historically black colleges and founding the Commonwealth School in Boston. Early life Merrill was the son of Charles E. Merrill, one of the founders of Merrill Lynch, the stock brokerage and investment banking firm. Merrill was the second of two children born to Charles E. Merrill and his first wife, Elizabeth Church Merrill. He was the younger brother of Doris Merrill Magowan (1916–2001), and the half-sibling to the poet James Merrill (1926–1995). He spent his childhood and adolescence in New York City. He attended Deerfield Academy and graduated from Harvard College. Merrill was the recipient of a Fulbright grant which he used to teach in Austria. Military service Merrill was conscripted into the military during World War II. He served in the Fifth United States Army in North Africa, Italy, and Germany through the end of the war. One of the stories emanating from this experience was Merrill's involvement in rescuing a teenaged Jewish boy he encountered in Germany named Bernat Rosner. Rosner was orphaned by the Holocaust and was befriended by Merrill. Merrill assisted Rosner to emigrate to the United States. Merrill sponsored Rosner's education and eventually Rosner attended Harvard Law School and became General Counsel of Safeway Stores, Inc., the grocery story chain founded by the senior Charles E. Merrill and run by Merrill's brother-in-law Robert Anderson Magowan. Rosner's life was recounted in a book named Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust (University of California Press, 2001).