Charles S. Lawrence

Charles S. Lawrence (December 22, 1892 – June 12, 1970) was a United States Army colonel who would survive the Bataan Death March to later become the first Executive Vice President of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).

During this time, the quartermasters (including Lawrence) attempted to purchase as much food as possible to outlast the invaders, but were stopped by their own commanding generals.

In Lawrence's case at Tarlac where he served as depot commander, he had planned on seizing about 2,000 cases of canned food, mostly fish and corned beef, and a large amount of clothing from Japanese firms stationed in the Philippines, but was refused by General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters claiming that Lawrence had no right to confiscate these items.

He took over the secretary's role from Carl R. Fellers, head of the food technology department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and moved the national offices to its present location in Chicago.

Following IFT, Lawrence served as advisor to the president of the National Florasynth Laboratory in Chicago until he retired for good in 1963.