Biography/History

David Clark (D. C.) Everest, Wausau, Wisconsin paper mill executive, civic leader and philanthropist, was born in Pine Grove, Van Buren County, Michigan, to John Henry and Gertrude Clark Everest on October 13, 1883. Everest graduated from the Gobles (Michigan) High School in 1899, and shortly thereafter moved with his family to Kalamazoo, Michigan. His grandfather, David Oscar Everest, who invented and patented a spring-tooth harrow, had founded the David O. Everest Company. This family business, a sawmill and manufacturer of agricultural implements, was destroyed by fire shortly after the death of D. C. Everest's father on October 18, 1899. The double family misfortune ended young Everest's plan to attend the University of Michigan. Instead, through the intercession of a friend of his father, Herbert Reed, Everest was employed early in 1900 as an office boy and clerk with the Bryant Paper Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan. By 1902, he was assistant manager of the Munising (Michigan) Paper Company, which had been newly organized by William G. Mather of Cleveland, Ohio, and Herbert H. Everand of Chicago. Everest remained with Munising until November 1, 1907 after which he sold equipment and supplies to pulp and paper mills throughout the western north central states in partnership with E. H. Williams and J. Frank Gray of Chicago.

In early 1909 Everest was hired by a group of Wausau, Wisconsin area lumbermen and associates to help in the organization of the Marathon Paper Mills Company and to supervise the construction of a plant in Rothchild, Wisconsin. This company, incorporated in 1944 as the Marathon Corporation, was to become his major and most successful business venture. Beginning as general manager, Everest became a director and secretary of the company in 1910, vice president in 1927, and president in 1938. In 1950 Everest resigned as president and became chairman of the board, a position he held until his death. For a few months in 1951 and 1952, he assumed temporarily the positions of president and general manager.

Everest's business leadership extended beyond the lumber and paper industries. He was a member of the original group of employers who in 1911 conceived of the Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Company of Wausau. This company began as a geographically limited mutual protective association for employers in lumber-related industries subject to Wisconsin workmen's compensation legislation. By 1920 Everest was a vice president of the firm, and by 1935 he was also vice president of the closely-related Employers Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

Beyond his business and professional activities, Everest led a full civic, social, political, and private life. He was an active member of the Republican Party and intimately involved in its campaigns and fundraising drives. He belonged to several fishing, hunting, golf, and country clubs, was a supporter of the performing arts in the Wausau area, and was a dedicated collector of coins, stamps, autographs, and rare books. Following this biographical sketch are lists of the businesses in which Everest was an officer or director; the positions he held by appointment in state and federal government; the professional organizations to which he belonged; the civic, educational, philanthropic, and political groups in which he participated; and the social groups with which he was affiliated.

On September 20, 1905, Everest married Lillian Marguerite (Rita) Gouin (born March 28, 1882), daughter of Charles Louis and Helen Maria (Platt) Gouin and descendant of an old French-Canadian family. They had five children, three of whom survived to adulthood: Helen Gertrude (Mrs. Laramie Evans), born March 8, 1908; Ruth Marguerita (Mrs. Norman Weaver), born July 23, 1915; and David Clark, Jr., born July 18, 1921.

After a brief hospitalization David Clark Everest died of cancer on October 28, 1955.

Everest was a director or officer of the following businesses (dates refer to the year Everest assumed his office):

• Copper District Power Company
• D. J. Murray Manufacturing Company, Wausau, Wisconsin (vice president, 1951)
• First American State Bank, Wausau, Wisconsin (vice president, 1949)
• Longview Fibre Company, Washington (vice president, 1926)
• Marathon Electric Manufacturing Corporation, Wausau, Wisconsin
• Masonite Corporation, Laurel, Mississippi (vice president, 1926)
• Master Package Corporation
• Menasha Products Company, Wisconsin (president, 1932)
• Ontonagon Fibre Corporation, Michigan (president)
• Peshtigo Paper Company, Wisconsin
• Tomahawk Kraft Paper Company, Wisconsin (secretary and vice president)
• Ward Paper Company, Wisconsin (president, 1938)
• Wausau Paper Mills Company, Wisconsin (president, 1948; chairman of the Board, 1950)
• Wausau Southern Lumber Company, Laurel, Mississippi
• Wisconsin Valley Electric Company
• Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company, Wausau, Wisconsin (president, 1950)
• Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Company, White Lake, Wisconsin

Everest held the following positions with the state and federal government:

• Chief Consultant to the Pulp and Paper Branch of production management, World Wars I and II
• Consultant to the Office of Production Management (September 1940-October 1941)
• Consultant to the Pulp and Paper Branch of the National Security Resources Board (1948-1950)
• Consultant to the Secretary of Agriculture in Forest Pest Control (1952)
• Forestry Advisory Committee of Wisconsin Conservation Department (member since 1948)
• Member, Timber Conservation Board (1931)

Everest was active in the following professional associations:

• American Forest Products Industries, Inc.
• American Forestry Association, Washington, D.C. (recipient, conservation award, 1949; president, 1951; director, 1952)
• American Paper and Pulp Association (president, 1927-1928; 1937-1938)
• American Pulp and Paper Mill Superintendents' Association
• American Pulpwood Association
• Forest Industries Council, New York (chairman, 1949 and 1950)
• Forest Industries Information Committee
• Forest Products Research Society
• Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wisconsin (trustee and vice president, 1929)
• Kraft Institute
• National Association of Manufacturers, Conservation Committee
• New York National Planning Association
• Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufacturers Association, Oshkosh, Wisconsin
• Paper and Twine Association
• Paper Industry Authority, New York
• Salesmen's Association of the Paper Industry
• Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (recipient of Gold Medal Award, 1944)
• United States Pulp Producers Association

Everest participated in the following civic, educational, philanthropic, and political organizations:

• American Cancer Society
• American Red Cross, Marathon County Chairman, 1918
• Boy Scouts of America, member of National Council
• Chamber of Commerce, Wausau, Wisconsin, United States
• Federated Charities
• Junior Achievement
• Lawrence College, Appleton, Wisconsin (vice president of board and trustee), awarded honorary doctorate of law, 1954
• National Safety Council
• Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin, honorary doctorate in business administration, 1946
• Republican Party
• Rotary Club
• State Historical Society of Wisconsin (president, 1952), established David Clark Everest Prize for literary work in Wisconsin Economic History
• Trees for Tomorrow Program, Merrill, Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin, Madison, honorary doctorate of law, 1953
• University of Wisconsin Foundation
• Wausau Community Chest
• Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
• Wisconsin Conference of Social Work
• Wisconsin Manufacturer's Association
• Wisconsin Tax Foundation, Board member
• Young Men's Christian Association

Everest belonged to several social organizations and had many pastimes including:

• Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
• Free and Accepted Masons
• Loyal Order of Moose
• Medinah Athletic Club, Chicago, Illinois
• Milwaukee Athletic Club
• National Philatelic Society
• New England Historic Genealogical Society
• Newcomen Society of England
• Royal Order of Jesters
• St. John's Episcopal Church, vestryman
• Numerous hunting, fishing, golf, and country clubs
• Supporter of Wausau area performing arts
• Collector of coins, stamps, autographs, and rare books

For further biographical information re David Clark Everest see also:

• Holman, Winifred Lovering. Descendants of Andrew Everest of York, Maine. New Hampshire: 1955.
• Karges, Steven Burton. “David Clark Everest and the Marathon Paper Mills Company: A Study of a Wisconsin Entrepreneur, 1909-1931.” Unpublished doctoral dissertation: University of Wisconsin, 1968.
• Quaife, Milo M. Wisconsin, Its History and Its People. Chicago: 1924.