Introduction
Arthur Calbraith Dorrance was the younger brother of Dr. John T. Dorrance, a brilliant scientist who after taking a position with the Joseph Campbell in Camden in 1887, invented the condensed soup that made Campbell Soup a household name around the world. The Dorrance family eventually gained sole control of the company and retained a majority of the shares when the company went public in the 1920s. Having worked at Campbell Soup for many years, Arthur Dorrance succeeded his brother as president of the firm after Dr. Dorrance passed away in September of 1930.
Arthur C. Dorrance served as president of Campbell Soup until his death in September of 1946.
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Arthur Calbraith Dorrance
South Jersey: A History 1624–1924
The demands that the business world has made upon Mr. Dorrance have found him equal to occasions of no minor importance in those departments of industry with which he has been associated from the beginning of his career. As the assistant general manager of the Campbell Soup Company, of Camden, he has a well-earned preferment with a world-renowned cannery concern in whose employ he began his experience and in whose progress he is today a valued factor.
A veteran of the World War, he performed a broad service in instructorship and training, both inland and on the coast.
ARTHUR CALBRAITH DORRANCE—The demands that the business world has made upon Mr. Dorrance have found him equal to occasions of no minor importance in those departments of industry with which he has been associated from the beginning of his career. As the assistant general manager of the Campbell Soup Company, of Camden, he has a well-earned preferment with a world-renowned cannery concern in whose employ he began his experience and in whose progress he is today a valued factor. A veteran of the World War, he performed a broad service in instructorship and training, both inland and on the coast.
Arthur Calbraith Dorrance, who with his family resides on Golf Road, Riverton, New Jersey, was born in Bristol, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, June 21, 1893, the son of John and Eleanor (Thompson) Dorrance. He married, February 7, 1918, Elsie Allan Ross, of Cheshire, England, at the Post Chapel of Fort Monroe, Virginia, and they are the parents of Arthur Calbraith Dorrance, Jr., who was born March 3, 1924.
In 1914, Mr. Dorrance entered the employ of the Campbell Soup Company, at Camden, and in November, 1915, he resigned to become works manager with the Franco-American Food Company, afterwards being elected to the presidency and the general management of that concern. In March, 1919, he became superintendent of the canning department of the Gorton-Pew Fisheries Company at Gloucester, Massachusetts. He remained with that firm until September, 1920, when he returned to the Campbell Soup Company as assistant to the general manager, and on February 17, 1923, he became assistant general manager. Mr. Dorrance is also a member of the board of directors of the Camden Safe Deposit and Trust Company; and during the years 1923–1925 he was director in the Camden Chamber of Commerce.
After attending the public schools in Bristol, Pennsylvania, Mr. Dorrance entered the Protestant Episcopal Academy, in Philadelphia, where he graduated with the class of 1910. Taking his college course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he graduated there in 1914 with the degree of Bachelor of Science.
At the beginning of the World War, on May 15, 1917, Mr. Dorrance joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, and was immediately assigned to Fort Myers, Virginia, where he remained a month, when he was sent to Fort Monroe. On August 15, 1917, he was assigned to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and a little more than a month later he was with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Fort Monroe, where he remained until July 5, 1918. He was then holding his commission as first lieutenant that had been received August 15, 1917; and on his subsequent assignment with the Coast Defense at Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, he was promoted, September 27, 1917, to captain in the Coast Artillery Corps. On October 22, 1918, Captain Dorrance went to Urbana, Illinois, where he was military instructor in the Students’ Army Training Corps of the University of Illinois; and on December 3, that year, he returned to Fort Monroe, where he received his honorable discharge from the service, December 10, 1918, with rank of captain of Coast Artillery Corps.
Mr. Dorrance is a member of Iota Tau Chapter, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Philadelphia Racquet Club; Philadelphia Country Club; Technology Club, of Philadelphia; and the Riverton Country Club. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Judge Lloyd Accepts Commerce Committee Chairmanship
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Circuit Court Judge Frank T. Lloyd yesterday accepted chairmanship of the Camden Chamber of Commerce Committee which is to study the unemployment question and make suggestions for remedial measures. With Judge Lloyd on the committee are: Alban Eavenson, of Eavenson & Levering; Belford G. Royal, of the Victor Talking Machine Company; Congressman Francis F. Patterson, Mayor Charles H. Ellis, former United States Senator David Baird, L. A. Hawkes, of the Hunt Pen Company; Frank Vanhart, president of City Council, and an official of the Esterbrook Pen Company; John Prentice, director of the Board of Freeholders; Burleigh B. Draper, of the Broadway Trust Company, A.C. Dorrance, of the Campbell Soup Company; Lawyer William S. Darnell, C. W. Tomlinson, of the R. M. Hollinshed Company; James V. Moran, of the Hurley Company; Rev. Thomas J. Whelen, pastor of the Church of the Holy Name; L. D. Johnson, of the State Employment Bureau; Rev. Charles B. Dubell, rector of St. John’s P. E. Church; Elmer E. Long, of Munger & Long; Mrs. Dr. A. H. Lippincott, Mrs. W. Penn Corson and Mrs. Harry Pelouze.
The committee was named by William E. Bennett, president of the Chamber of Commerce, whose aims are to have an immediate inquiry with the idea of a report being made by the end of the month.
Campbell Soup Head Dies in Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Inquirer —
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Sept. 23 (AP).—Arthur C. Dorrance, president of the Campbell Soup Company, died Saturday night at his home in suburban Ardmore after a short illness. He was 53.
A native of Bristol, Pa., Dorrance had been connected with Campbell in various capacities since he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1914. He became president of the firm in 1930.
Dorrance was a director of the Lehigh and Pennsylvania Railroads and a member of the board of managers of the Girard Trust Company.
Surviving are his wife and two children; two sisters, Mrs. Stuart Dorrance Blake of New York, and Mrs. Roy Dudley of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a brother, Dr. George Morris Dorrance, Philadelphia.
Church of the Redeemer Cemetery
Named: Arthur Calbraith Dorrance, June 21, 1893, and September 21, 1946.