William Larimer Mellon, Sr.
| William Larimer Mellon, Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Chairman of the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania | |
|
In office June 15, 1926[1] – May 12, 1928[2] | |
| Preceded by | Harry Baker |
| Succeeded by | Edward Martin |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
June 1, 1868 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Died |
October 9, 1949 (aged 81) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Hill Taylor |
| Children |
Rachel Mellon Walton Margaret Mellon Hitchcock William Larimer Mellon, Jr. Matthew Mellon |
| Profession | Businessman |
William Larimer Mellon, Sr. (1 June 1868 – October 9, 1949),[3] sometimes referred to as W. L., was a founder of Gulf Oil.
Biography
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 1, 1868 to James Ross Mellon, eldest son of Judge Thomas Mellon, and Rachel Larimer Mellon, daughter of railroad and land baron William Larimer, Jr. He spent part of his childhood in the West with his uncle Andrew Mellon, who deeply influenced him. In the 1880s he developed an interest in the burgeoning petroleum industry in Pennsylvania, but his nascent oil company was bought out by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil in 1895.
When oil was discovered in Spindletop, Texas in 1901, the Mellon family invested in the well. When the well began to decline in 1902, W.L. was dispatched to investigate, and took on a progressively larger role in management. In January 1907 he established the Gulf Oil Corporation, which proceeded to build a pipeline from Oklahoma to Port Arthur, Texas and was shipping Oklahoma crude oil to port by September. It expanded steadily thereafter, becoming one of the largest oil companies in the United States.
He later became active in Republican Party politics, and served as chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party from 1926 to 1928.
In 1949 Mellon established the graduate school of industrial administration at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, which is today the David A. Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. He died in October of that year at the age of 81 and was interred in Homewood Cemetery.
Personal life
Mellon married Mary Hill Taylor, they had four children: Rachel Mellon Walton, Margaret Mellon Hitchcock, William Larimer Mellon, Jr., and Matthew Mellon.
References
- ↑ "$596,405 for Vare Brings the Primary Total to $1,837,700". The New York Times. June 15, 1926. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
- ↑ Armstrong, Robert B. (May 12, 1928). "Mellon to Get Keystone Vote". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
- ↑ "W.L. Mellon, Last Of Family's Generation, Dies In Pittsburgh". The Sun. October 9, 1949. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
- Gulf Oil Corporation from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Reeves, Amy, "Oilman Mellon Struck It Bigger," Investor's Business Daily, March 8, 2006
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