Charles Appleton Meyer, 78, retired senior vice president for public affairs at Sears, Roebuck & Co. and a former director of the giant merchandising firm, was assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs in the Nixon administration.
A resident of Lake Forest, he died Monday in Lake Forest Hospital
Mr. Meyer was appointed assistant secretary of state in 1969 and served in that position for three years.
In that role, he dealt with issues involving Cuban President Fidel Castro’s influence in Latin America, the coming to power of Salvador Allende in Chile and the first general assembly in 1971 of the Organization of American States. He was also in charge of the U.S. government’s Alliance for Progress aid program.
“We chose him,” a State Department official said at the time, “because we wanted someone who knew Latin America, who spoke Spanish and who had a broad administrative experience. We also thought that Charles Meyer had a personal manner–you might call it a style–that would help in dealing with our Latin American friends.”
Joining Sears in 1939, he then helped develop markets and manufacturing sites in Latin American countries during the 1940s and 1950s.
After serving as president of Sears Roebuck de Colombia Limitada from 1953 to 1955, Mr. Meyer became Sears vice president for Latin America. In 1960, he was named a director and appointed vice president in charge of the company’s southwestern and eastern territories, a position in which he headed a staff of 85,000 employees.
During the 1970s, Mr. Meyer served as vice president of corporate planning and was appointed vice president of public affairs in 1978. He held that position until he retired Jan. 1, 1981.
Mr. Meyer was elected chairman of the board of Lake Forest College in 1976 and served as president from 1981 to 1991 of the Cradle in Evanston.
Survivors include his wife, Suzanne; two daughters, Brooke S. Gray and Nancy M. Hovey; and four grandchildren.
Services for Mr. Meyer were held in Lake Forest.
