Tilt, Charles Arthur
Charles Arthur Tilt Soundex Code T430
Charles Arthur Tilt (1877-1956).
2064 W. Pratt Boulevard, Charles Arthur Tilt, 1918.
According to Time Magazine, Monday, December 28, 1942, "One of Chicago's least-known citizens is short, silver-haired Charles Arthur Tilt, 65, who lives in a swanky Gold Coast apartment, is an expert yachtsman, golfer, and skeet shooter, is the owner of a cannon-cracker temper. He is also founder, mainspring, and president of smart Diamond T Motor Car Company ... "
Chicago Tribune Death Notice, Friday, September 21, 1956, page C10
Charles Arthur Tilt, beloved husband of Agnes Morgan Tilt, nee: Agnes Morgan; father of Margaret Tilt and Mary Tilt; two grandchildren Daphne Scholl and Eric Wentworth. Services 11:00 a.m. Saturday at Cathedral of St. James, 666 N. Rush Street. Interment private.
Chicago Tribune News Item, Friday, September 21, 1956, page C10
Charles Tilt Funeral is set for Tomorrow
Diamond T's Chairman Dies in Wisconsin
Services for Charles Arthur Tilt, 79, auto maker and founder of the Diamond T Motor Car Company will be held at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow in the Cathedral of St. James, 666 N. Rush Street.
Mr. Tilt, of 1500 N. Lake Shore Drive died of a heart attack Wednesday, September 19, 1956, in his summer home at Trout Lake, Wisconsin. He was president of Diamond T for 40 years, and had been board chairman since 1945. He was well known as a sportsman. He competed in the former Elgin road races, and Algonquin Hill Climb, and was a yachtsman and yacht designer, and a trap and skeet shooter.
The son of a shoe manufacturer, he made his first Diamond T (for Tilt) auto by hand in 1905 in the rear of a one story north side garage. He made his first truck in 1911 for a satisfied auto buyer.
The company turned exclusively to trucks, producing 1,400 heavy duty vehicles for the government in World War I and 50,223 in World War II.
Surviving are the widow Agnes Morgan Tilt; two daughters, Mrs. Moorehead Patterson and Mrs. John Wentworth; two grandchildren; a brother Ned B. Tilt and two sisters, Mrs. Katherine T. Dunn and Mrs. Judith T. Bryant.
Mr. Tilt was the president of the Lincoln Park Gun Club, and a member of the Chicago Club, Chicago Athletic Association, and Edgewater Golf Club. Before founding Diamond T, he worked eight years in his father's shoe company, and one year as sales manager for the company making Silent Knight autos.
