Henry Percival Dawson (22 October 1889–17 January 1982), minor league baseball executive, was born in Halifax County, North Carolina, and was the son of James T. Dawson, a farmer, and Sarah "Sallie" E. Willey Dawson. From 1907 to 1909 Dawson attended Wake Forest College (later University), where he excelled in baseball. During the 1908 and 1909 seasons he also played professionally for the Raleigh Red Birds of the Eastern Carolina League. On 17 November 1909 he obtained a license in Warren County, North Carolina, to marry Eula Carrington Newsom. Prior to his wife's death from amenia on 28 February 1921, the couple had one daughter. In May 1910 the census enumerator recorded that Dawson had moved to adjacent Halifax County and was working as a clerk for the Seaboard Air Line Railway. He remained with the railroad but by 1915 had moved to Portsmouth, Virginia, where he was a ticket agent.

In 1919 Percy Dawson, as he was known, bought an interest in the Portsmouth Truckers and became vice president of the baseball club, which played in the Class C Virginia League. He quickly proved an astute judge of talent. With its elevation to Class B status in 1920, the Virginia League could attract better players, and Dawson acquired the future Hall of Famer Harold Joseph "Pie" Traynor, who helped the Truckers to the playoffs before Dawson sold him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for $10,000 near the end of the regular season. After winning league titles in 1920 and 1921, Dawson left the Truckers and purchased the Newport News Shipbuilders, also of the Virginia League.

In January 1923 Dawson surrendered his interest in the Shipbuilders in order to legitimize purchase of the Richmond Colts, a key Virginia League franchise. Minor league franchises were difficult to run profitably, and the Virginia League was on particularly shaky ground. A newspaper described Dawson as "a shrewd business man and baseball wise," and he was successful in fielding winning clubs. After coming within a few percentage points of securing the 1923 pennant, the Colts won league titles during the next three seasons. Dawson doubled as field manager during part of 1925. Still, as the league's finances withered, the Colts suffered from declining revenue, partly a result of the club's inadequate facilities. Dawson announced intentions to build a new ballpark in the city's West End and brought in a co-owner to reduce his financial risk. He and his partner then purchased the Raleigh Capitals of the Piedmont League.

With an interest in two different leagues and a reputation as a hard-nosed competitor for baseball talent, Dawson helped negotiate an agreement in January 1927 between the major and minor leagues over the respective rights of the circuits in drafting and contracting players. During the next two seasons he ran the Raleigh club while leaving management of the Colts to his partner. Financial woes plagued both teams. The Colts, along with the rest of the Virginia League, folded in June 1928. Although Dawson's efforts helped the Capitals play for the league pennant in 1927, he failed to turn a profit, and after the 1928 season that franchise was suspended.

During the 1932 and 1933 seasons Dawson was the general manager of the International League's Baltimore Orioles. He resigned and began working for the New York Yankees, who assigned him to run the Norfolk Tars, which the organization had recently acquired as an entry in the Piedmont League. For the next twenty seasons, as business manager from 1934 to 1945 and president from 1946 until 1953, Dawson directed the Tars, which emerged as the best franchise in the league. With future Yankee stars Yogi Berra, Edward Charles "Whitey" Ford, and Phil Rizzuto donning the Tars pinstripes along with other players headed for the majors, such as Allen Gettel and Bob Porterfield (both scouted and signed by Dawson), the Norfolk club won seven league pennants during Dawson's tenure. The 1952 unit posted a 96–36 record and has been recognized as one of the best minor league teams of all time. In spite of their success on the field, the Tars struggled financially early in the 1950s. Minor league baseball suffered from competition with other forms of entertainment, and the Tars faced a boycott from African American fans outraged by the lack of Black players and by the Jim Crow restrictions at Norfolk's Myers Field. After the 1953 season, the Yankees sold the team to local investors, who did not retain Dawson as club president. He continued for about four years to work for the Yankees as a scout.

By 1951 he had married Elizabeth May East and subsequently moved to the Richmond area by 1956. The following year he became a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies. After retiring, Henry Percival Dawson lived in Henrico County, where he died on 17 January 1982. He was buried in Westhampton Memorial Park.

Sources Consulted:
Full name and self-reported birth date in World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards (1917–1918), Record Group 163, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; Warren County marriage license in North Carolina Register of Deeds, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh; Richmond Times-Dispatch, 14 Jan. (portrait), 10 (quotation) Sept. 1923, 12 Jan. 1925; Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 14 July 1955; information on Norfolk Tars at A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Library, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, N.Y., and provided by Allen Gettel (2005); W. Harrison Daniel and Scott P. Mayer, Baseball and Richmond: A History of the Professional Game, 1884–2000 (2003); Clay Shampoe and Thomas R. Garrett, Baseball in Norfolk, Virginia (2003), esp. 48 (portrait), and Baseball in Portsmouth, Virginia (2004), 13–15, 17; Death Certificate, Henrico Co., Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia; obituaries in Richmond News Leader, 18 Jan. 1982, and Richmond Times-Dispatch, 19 Jan. 1982.

Photograph in Richmond Times-Dispatch, 14 Jan. 1923.

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by William Bland Whitley.

How to cite this page:
William Bland Whitley, "Henry Percival Dawson (1889–1982)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2024 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Dawson_Percy, accessed [today's date]).

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