# Material Service Corporation The Chicago building-materials company founded in 1919 by [[Henry Crown]] with his brothers Sol and Irving — the original source of the [[Crown Family]] fortune. Supplying sand, gravel, cement, and coal to the booming Chicago construction market, it made Henry Crown wealthy and, in 1959, merged into defense contractor [[General Dynamics]] in exchange for a large equity stake that the family holds to this day. The 1959 Material Service–General Dynamics merger is the hinge that converted a regional materials fortune into a permanent position in the U.S. defense-industrial base. > [!note] Stub > Minimum-viable page created to resolve inbound wikilinks. Expand with the 1959 merger terms and Henry Crown's 1966 proxy-fight return to the General Dynamics board.