Charles Mott was born on June 2, 1875 in Newark, Essex County, N.J.[1] to John Coon Mott and Isabella Turnball Stewart. He graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1897 with an engineering degree. He began working for his father and his uncle, Fred Mott, who had purchased a bicycle wheel making business (Weston-Mott Co.).[citation needed] After the death of his father, C. S. Mott was appointed superintendent of the company by his uncle.[citation needed] C. S. Mott moved to Flint, Michigan in 1907 after an invite by William C. Durant to move his company, Weston-Mott Co. to the city. Weston-Mott later merged with the Buick Motor Company making him the original US partner in the creation of the General Motors Corporation as R.S. McLaughlin had formed an alliance for Canada in 1907. The company was later bought by General Motors in exchange for GM stock. In 1921, Mott became Chief of the GM Advisory Staff at the Detroit Headquarters and served on the GM Board of Directors for 60 years, from 1913 until his death in 1973. He was Mayor of City of Flint in 1912–1913 and was defeated for reelection in 1914, but was once again elected in 1918. He was Vice-President of General Motors in 1916. In 1920, he ran in the Republican primary for Governor of Michigan. In 1924 and 1940, he was a Michigan delegate to Republican National Convention. He was selected as a Republican Michigan Presidential Elector candidate in 1964.

In 1926, Charles Mott established the C.S. Mott Foundation. Warren Mott High School in Warren, Michigan, is named in his honor. Waterford Mott High School, Waterford, Michigan, is also named in his honor. The Charles S. Mott Prize for the cause of cancer is one of a trio of prestigious research prizes annually awarded by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation. A building on the University of Chicago’s campus is named after him, as well as a building at Kettering University. In 1965, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation donated $6.5 million as a grant to improve the existing pediatric division within the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, opened in 1969, is part of the University of Michigan Health System and is consistently ranked amongst the nations leading pediatric hospitals. In 2005, the Foundation gave an additional $25 million toward the construction of a new facility. The new hospital, which opened in December 2011, provides over 1.1 million square feet of space, 348 beds, 50 private maternity rooms and 46 private NICU rooms. C S Mott Lake, a man-made lake on the Flint River that serves as the centerpiece of the Genesee Recreation Area just northeast of Flint, is named after him,[citation needed] as is Mott Community College. Charles Mott married Ethel Culbert Harding in 1900 and they had three children, Aimee, Elsa and C. S. Harding. Ethel died in 1924 at age 43 after falling from the window of her second story bedroom. In 1927, Mott married his second wife Mitlies Rathburn (1892-1928). Mitlies died of tonsillitis on 26 February 1928. In March 1929, Mott married his third wife Dee Furey (1899-1986), and filed for divorce in October of the same year. In 1934 Mott married his fourth wife Ruth Rawlings, by whom he also had three children (Susan Elizabeth, Stewart Rawlings, and Maryanne Mott).