Julio Antonio (1889 - 1919)

Artist. He was born in Mora d’Ebre, Tarragona, Catalunya, Spain. His full name was Julio Antonio Rodríguez Hernández, but was known as Julio Antonio. He was a prodigious sculptor in his short career. He is remembered for his works “Flores Malsanas,” “Los Bustos de la Raza,” “Monumento a los Héroes Desnudos,” “Monumento a Goya,” “Monumento […]

Connie Jost (1951 - 1998)

Artist, Environmentalist. Best known for her witty visual puns, Connie Jost’s art pleaded the case for conservation with whimsical humor and the depiction of natural beauty. Born in rural South Jersey to an artist mother and a carpenter-fisherman father, she earned Art degrees at Montclair State College and Goddard University in Los Angeles in addition […]

George Jones (1786 - 1869)

Artist. He is best remembered for his paintings of military subjects and British battle scenes. He was born on January 6, 1786, the son of John Jones, a mezzotint engraver. In 1801 he became a student at the Royal Academy in London, England, where he was a frequent art exhibitor over the next eight years. […]

Chuck Jones (1912 - 2002)

Influential Animator. Born Charles Martin Jones in Spokane, Washington, his family moved to California while he was still an infant. As a boy, he found occasional work as a child extra in Mack Sennett comedies. At fifteen, he enrolled in the Chouinard Art Institute before he got his first job in animation as a cel […]

Sir Cyril Arthur Pearson (1866 - 1921)

Newspaper publisher and magante, founded ‘Pearson’s Weekly’ in 1890, and then purchased the ‘Daily Express’ and the ‘Evening Standard’in the 1900s. Created a baronet in 1916. (bio by: David Conway) Cause of death: drowned in his bath after slipping

Robert Paxton (1902 - 1980)

Industrialist. He joined the General Electric company in 1923 as an engineer, advanced in the manufacturing and administrative operations of the company and served as president from 1958-1961.  Family links:  Spouse:  S. Louise Paxton (1910 – 2003)* *Calculated relationship

Allen Eugene Paulson (1922 - 2000)

Founder of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation. Won many aviation related awards, including the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy in 1987 and the Howard Hughes Award for Aviation in 1988, and holds many international speed records. He was also one of thoroughbred horse racing’s most successful owners and breeders.  (bio by: A.J. Marik)  Family links:  Spouse:  Lola Irene […]

Sir John Dean Paul (1970 - 1970)

Banker and Chairman of the General Cemetery Company. He successfully pressed for his preference for the Classical style in the design of the buildings at Kensal Green.

John H. Patterson (1844 - 1922)

Businessman. He was a pioneer in sales and an industrialist most noted for being the founder of National Cash Register (N.C.R.). Patterson sought to create a method of sales management that encompassed all aspects of selling, from the calculation of quotas and commission rates to the motivate discouraged salesmen. The aspect of the Patterson method […]

Ralph M. Parsons (1896 - 1974)

Founder (1944) of the engineering and construction company that bears his name. In 2000 the company had over 11,000 employees and operated in 50 states and 80 countries. A major US philanthropist, he created the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. The company logo is on his marker in the lower left corner.

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons (1854 - 1931)

Engineer, scientist and industrialist. Pioneer of turbine technology, founding the succesful company C. A. Parsons Ltd. based in Newcastle. Also invented the ‘auxetophone’ for amplifiynig double-basses, but this proved less popular and profitable. Died on his yacht in Jamaica. (bio by: David Conway)

Colonel Tom Parker (1909 - 1997)

Colonel Tom Parker Not to get all Joseph Campbell-ish here, but as we look at the figures who populate postmodern American myth—that pantheon of movie stars, musicians, artists, and politicians we have consensually elevated to demi-godhood—we see a number of recurring motifs. The American myth-figure comes from a humble background, receives a stroke of extreme […]

George Swinnerton Parker (1866 - 1952)

Businessman. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, he was a board game inventor and industrialist, who founded Parker Brothers. In 1883, at the age of 16, he published his first game, called “Banking”. He then founded his game company, initially called the George S. Parker Company, followed up with two more games, “Famous Men” and “Baker’s Dozen”. […]

Hervey Coke Parke (1827 - 1899)

Businessman. He was a co-founder of Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Company in 1868 in Detroit, Michigan. The company started standardizing medications and built the first modern pharmaceutical laboratory. They also developed a method of clinical tests for new drugs. They were the first to produce a bacterial vaccine, and phenytoin, which is used to treat seizures and […]

Alexander Pantages (1970 - 1936)

Theatrical Entrepreneur. He was born Pericles Pantages on the Greek island of Andros. He came to the United States in the late 1890s, living in San Francisco before moving to the Yukon Territory during the Klondike gold rush. While there, he operated a vaudeville and burlesque theatre. In 1902 he moved to Seattle, Washington where […]

H.T. Pangburn (1875 - 1928)

H.T. Pangburn Businessman. Born in Mays Lick, Kentucky, he is best known as the founder of the Pangburn Candy Company. At age of fourteen he went to Dallas, Texas and during employment in a drug store acquired a thorough knowledge of pharmacy and the drug business. Moving to Fort Worth in 1902, he became proprietor […]

Potter Palmer (1826 - 1902)

Business Magnate, Real Estate Developer. He was responsible for much of the development of State Street in Chicago, Illinois in the late 1800s. Born in Potter’s Hollow, Albany County, New York, he was the son of a Quaker and prosperous farmer. After receiving a common school education, he became a store clerk at the age […]

William S. Paley (1901 - 1990)

William Paley quickly grasped the earnings potential of radio and recognized that good programming was the key to selling advertising time and, in turn, bringing in profits to the network and to affiliate owners. Before Paley, most businessmen viewed stations as stand-alone local outlets or, in other words, as the broadcast equivalent of local newspapers. […]

James Ward Packard (1863 - 1928)

Born in Warren, Ohio, to Warren and Mary Elizabeth Doud Packard. James Ward Packard attended Lehigh University and with his brother founded Packard Electric Company there in 1890 and manufactured incandescent carbon arc lamps. The brothers then formed a partnership with Winton Motor Carriage Company investor George L. Weiss called Packard & Weiss in 1893. […]

David Packard (1912 - 1996)

In 1939, David Packard and Hewlett established Hewlett-Packard (HP) in Packard’s garage with an initial capital investment of $538 (approx, adjusted to today $9,000 in 2015). Packard mentions in his book The HP Way that the name Hewlett-Packard was determined by the flip of a coin: HP, rather than PH. Their first product was an […]

Frederick Pabst (1836 - 1904)

Businessman. Beer magnate who founded the Pabst Breweries. Born in Nicholausreith, Bavaria, Germany, he immigrated with his parents to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1848, worked for a time as a cook in Chicago and later became captain and part owner of one of the Goodrich Steamship Lines’ ships, theHuron, on the Great Lakes. In Milwaukee, he […]

(1970 - 1970)

Businessman, Naturalist, Yachtsman. In 1871, he left England to go to Asia, to work as a merchant in Japan and a marine naturalist. There, he collected over 1,300 of Asian fish specimens from Japan and China. In addition, he also collected reptiles, birds, clams, frogs and giant sea sponges. His collections can be found in […]

Harrison Gray Otis (1837 - 1917)

Newspaper publisher and real estate magnate. He published the “Los Angeles Times” from 1886 until after World War I, was also a commanding conservative force in turn-of-the-century Southern California, and an unequaled promoter of regional growth. Born near Marietta, Ohio, he was a descendant of the colonial political activist James Otis; he had little formal […]

John R. Opel (1925 - 2011)

US Business Executive. As the visionary head of I.B.M., he played a key role during the company’s transition into the personal computer era. Born John Roberts Opel, he was raised in Jefferson City, Missouri, the son of a hardware store proprietor, he attended Westminster College where he majored in English, and following service with the […]

Aristotle Socrates Onassis (1906 - 1975)

Greek Shipping Magnate. He is best remembered as the second husband of former First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  During his lifetime, he was one of the richest and most famous men in the world, with his name becoming synonymous with extreme wealth.  Born Aristotle Sokratis Onassis in Smyrna, in the Ottoman Empire (now Izmir, Turkey), […]

Earl Bernard Olson (1915 - 2006)

Earl Bernard Olson (May 8, 1915 – December 11, 2006) was a businessman who founded the Jennie-O Turkey company (now part of Hormel). Earl B. Olson was born on a farm north of Murdock, MN, the son of Olof and Anna (Anderson) Olson. Both his father and mother were immigrants from Sweden. After eight grades of […]

Ransom Eli Olds (1864 - 1950)

American inventor and automotive pioneer, best known as the founder of the car company that became Oldsmobile Motor Division of General Motors Corporation (GM). He was born Ransom Eli Olds on June 3, 1864, in Geneva, Ohio, the younger of two sons of Pliny Fisk Olds and Sarah Whipple Olds. His father was a blacksmith […]

Namihei Odaira (1874 - 1951)

Namihei Odaira founder of Hitachi, was born in Tochigi Prefecture, which is about hundred kilometers from Tokyo, Japan, on 15th of January 1874. He is known in history as Japanese philanthropist and entrepreneur. He got his early education from his native town. In 1900, he got his graduation degree in the department of electrical engineering […]

Amedeo Voltejo Obici (1877 - 1947)

Founder of Planters. Started his career as a bellhop and fruit stand vendor in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Later, Obici moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and opened his own fruit stand and invested in a peanut roaster. Here he linked his life’s fortune with the peanut. In a few years, Obici turned peddler, using a horse and wagon, […]

Eugene O’Keefe (1827 - 1913)

Brewer of beer, “O’Keefe Brewing.”