John D. Rockefeller

Rockefeller was born July 8, 1839, in Upstate New York, worked as an assistant bookkeeper at 16, and at 20 began business partnerships focused on oil refining. He founded Standard Oil in 1870, ran it until 1897, and remained its largest shareholder as kerosene and gasoline made him the richest person in the United States. The company lowered costs and expanded distribution through innovation and consolidation in a permissive legal environment - critics pointed to regulatory capture, and Rockefeller reportedly said, "Competition is a sin." Author Ida Tarbell's writings amplified the criticism. By 1913 his wealth hit $900 million, nearly 3% of U.S. GDP. He spent the last 40 years at his Westchester County estate, Kykuit, creating the modern structure of systematic philanthropy: he founded the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University, funded Central Philippine University, and pioneered medical research that nearly eradicated hookworm and yellow fever in America. A devout Baptist who taught Sunday school and served as church janitor, he relied on his wife Laura Spelman Rockefeller, abstained from alcohol and tobacco, and died May 23, 1937.