| 1893 May 30 |
George Arthur Sloan was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Paul Lowe and Anne Mae (Joy) Sloan.
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| 1915 |
Graduated from Vanderbilt University with an LL.B. Admitted to the Tennessee bar, but never seriously practiced.
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| 1915-1917 |
Worked for the Nashville drygoods firm of Cain-Sloan Co., of which his father was co-owner.
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| 1917-1919 |
Served with the American Expeditionary Force in France and attained the rank of captain.
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| 1919-1922 |
Assistant to the Chairman of the American Red Cross, Washington, D.C.
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| 1922-1926 |
Secretary of the Copper and Brass Research Association, New York City.
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| 1926-1929 |
Helped organize the Cotton Textile Institute Inc., and served as its first secretary.
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| 1929-1935 |
President and chairman of the Cotton Textile Institute. Reforms he introduced to the industry included the 40 hour work week, the prohibition of child labor, increased wages, and an enlarged work force. He felt that improving working conditions made good business sense and that restraining production would raise profits and wages. These policies were resisted both by social critics and traditionally-minded mill owners and were a factor in his controversial resignation. Nonetheless, these reforms earned him a reputation as a progressive business leader.
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| 1929 November 30 |
Married Florence Lincoln Rockefeller, who by her previous marriage to William A. Rockefeller had two daughters, Florence Lincoln and Anne. Florence later became the first wife of Senator William Proxmire (D-Wis).
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| 1931 |
Member of President Hoover's Committee on Unemployment Relief.
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| 1932-1933 |
Chairman of the clothing and textile group of the national share-the-work movement.
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| 1933-1935 |
Chairman of the Cotton Textile Code Authority, which submitted the first code under N.R.A.
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| 1935-1942 |
Member of the Business Advisory Council, U.S. Department of Commerce, and chairman of the U.S. Consumer's Goods Industrial Committee.
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| 1938-1955 |
Worked for the New York Metropolitan Opera Association as director (1938-1941), president (1941-1946), chairman of the board (1946-1955), and honorary chairman (1955). He led several successful fund raising campaigns, raising more than $3 million from 1940 to 1953, and had innovative and controversial ideas about management of artistic talent. He also lobbied for a repeal of the federal tax on admissions charged by non-profit musical organizations, which was repealed in 1952.
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| 1940-1944 |
Commissioner of Commerce, New York City, and chairman of the Mayor's Business Committee.
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| 1944-1950 |
Chairman of the Board, Southern Agriculturalist. Director, United States Steel Corporation, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Bankers Trust Company, and the Great American Insurance Company.
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| 1945 |
Honorary LL.D. from University of Chattanooga.
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| 1952 |
Campaigned for his friend Dwight D. Eisenhower and worked to strengthen the Republican Party in the South.
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| 1955 May 21 |
George A. Sloan died in New York City.
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During his lifetime Sloan also served on the board of trustees of Vanderbilt University, belonged to numerous charitable and professional organizations, and wrote articles on the opera and on social and economic problems.
