Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the 31st President of the United States. The humanitarian services for which he is perhaps best remembered were public-private efforts to relieve misery Read more…
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Conrad Hilton
Conrad Hilton was born on Christmas Day, 1887, on the banks of the Rio Grande, in the tiny frontier town of San Antonio, New Mexico Territory. Connie, as he was Read more…
Benjamin Rush
“Be indulgent to the poor.” Those were the last words of Benjamin Rush, spoken to his son. An appropriate coda for a man who may have had the deepest altruistic Read more…
Henry Ford
Henry Ford ranks among the most important figures of the industrial era. He founded the Ford Motor Company, which pioneered assembly-line production, driving down costs and making automobile ownership a Read more…
Bill Daniels
Bill Daniels was a pioneer of the cable TV industry and a major philanthropist in Denver and the Rocky Mountain region. Throughout his life, his charitable giving ranged widely. He Read more…
Thomas Eddy
Thomas Eddy was one of New York City’s leading financiers, who led some of the most innovative philanthropic efforts of the early 19th century. He founded the first mutual insurance Read more…
Enoch Pratt
Enoch Pratt was one of nineteenth-century Maryland’s most prominent businessmen. Today he is perhaps best remembered for creating a system of free lending libraries in Baltimore—a pioneering effort that set Read more…
Robert Smith
Robert Smith was a prominent real estate developer in the greater Washington metropolitan area, best known for leading the development of Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia. He was also a Read more…
James Smithson
James Lewis Smithson was a Briton who died in Italy in 1829, at the age of 75. Six years later, the primary beneficiary of Smithson’s will died, and urgent letters Read more…
William Simon
William Simon was a successful banker, public servant, and noted philanthropist. He was a bond trader, a pioneer of leveraged buyouts, and merchant banker; he served as Secretary of the Read more…
Milton Hershey
Milton Hershey created one of America’s most beloved brands. He made milk chocolate a treat all Americans could afford, and in the process cooked up a great fortune. Hershey used Read more…
Edward Harkness
Edward Harkness is perhaps the least well-known of the major American philanthropists of the first half of the 20th century. His relative obscurity is all the more surprising given the Read more…
Nicholas Longworth
Nicholas Longworth is best remembered, insofar as he is remembered at all, as the father of American winemaking. Longworth popularized the Catawba grape and created a widespread, if short-lived, enthusiasm Read more…
Stephen Girard
Stephen Girard amassed enormous wealth as a merchant and banker; if his wealth is viewed as a percentage of GDP, he was one of the five richest men in American Read more…
Lynde and Harry Bradley
Lynde and Harry Bradley were brothers who both dropped out of high school and founded one of the largest electronics companies in the country. They first used the proceeds of Read more…
J. Paul Getty
J. Paul Getty was one of America’s most successful oilmen who was, if anything, an even more successful art collector. Getty acquired a number of oil companies before discovering and Read more…
Bernice Pauahi Bishop
Bernice Pauahi Bishop was a Hawaiian princess, the last direct descendant of the Royal House of Kamehameha. With her husband, Charles Reed Bishop, she is remembered as one of the Read more…
W. K. Kellogg
Will Keith Kellogg invented corn flakes, and with them he stoked America’s appetite for the convenience of dry breakfast cereal. His cereal business became wildly successful. And from its profits, Read more…
Leland Stanford
Leland Stanford built his wealth in railroads in the 19th century—an era of rough-and-tumble politics and crony capitalism. He is best known today, however, as the founder of one of Read more…
John Rockefeller Jr.
John Rockefeller Jr. was the only son and principal heir of John Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil. Much of the younger Rockefeller’s working life was dedicated to philanthropy—first as Read more…