Alfred Jackson Billes (1902 - 1995)

Entrepreneur, Business Magnate. Founder of the Canadian Tire company.  Family links:  Spouse:  Muriel Moore Billes (____ – 1979)*  Children:  Alfred William Billes (1935 – 2007)* *Calculated relationship

Nicholas Biddle (1786 - 1844)

American Banker and Financier. He is probably best remembered as the president of the Second National Bank of the United States from 1822 to 1839, whose operating procedures and practices came into direct conflict with President Andrew Jackson. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his father was devoted to the cause of American Independence. As a child, […]

John Paris “J.P.” Bickell (1884 - 1951)

Business Magnate, Canadian Sports Benefactor. Bickell was a popular Toronto, Ontario, businessman who had a great contribution to the benefit of professional hockey. Bickell had successful career in business thanks to the success of the teams of the Toronto St. Pats and the Toronto Maple Leafs as well as many other causes. Bickell who was […]

Charles Garrett “Garry” Betty (1957 - 2007)

Businessman, CEO. He served as the president and corporate executive officer (CEO) of Earthlink, an Atlanta based Internet Service Provider. He joined Earthlink in 1996 and oversaw the company’s growth from a moderately sized business with half a million subscribers, to a nationally based company with over 5 million customers. He was a 1979 graduate […]

William Peter Bettendorf (1857 - 1910)

Inventor, Businessman. As president and co-founder of Bettendorf Axle Company, he invented the Bettendorf Truck, which revolutionized the railroad industry. Before that time, railroad trucks had been made from many smaller pieces. The Bettendorf Truck was cast from one piece of steel. The city of Bettendorf, Iowa is named for him and his brother, Joseph. […]

Joseph William Bettendorf (1864 - 1933)

Businessman. Co-founder, along with his brother, William, of the Bettendorf Axle Compnay, whose Bettendorf Truck revolutionized the railroad industry. The city of Bettendorf, Iowa is named for the Bettendorf brothers. (bio by: Dustin Oliver)  Family links:  Parents:  Michael Bettendorf (1836 – 1917)  Catherine Reck Bettendorf (1837 – 1926)  Spouse:  Elizabeth Ohl Bettendorf (1865 – 1941)* […]

Union Noble Bethell (1859 - 1933)

Businessman. He was a lawyer who joined all small phone companies to create AT&T. He was present at first cable crossing from Orleans, Massachusetts to Brest, France, and was chairman of operating board of AT&T from 1918 to 1919.  Family links:  Spouse:  Donna Isabel Bethel (1870 – 1954)*  Children:  John Warren Bethell (1906 – 1976)* […]

Jacob Best (1786 - 1861)

Business Magnate. Jacob Best learned the brewer’s trade in his hometown of Hesse Darnstadt, Germany, and then moved on to operate a small brewery in Mattenheim. In 1840, two of Best’s four sons immigrated to America, settling in the Kilbourntown section of Milwaukee. They were joined by Jacob Best, his two younger sons and other […]

Clarence Leo Best (1878 - 1951)

Industrialist, Businessman. Co-founder of the Caterpillar Tractor Company. Born the son of tractor manufacturing pioneer Daniel Best in Albany, Oregon, he began working for his father’s company, the Best Manufacturing Company, right after high school. In 1908, his father sold the company to chief rival Benjamin Holt and his Holt Manufacturing Company and Clarence, who […]

Lauren Gail Bessette (1964 - 1999)

Sister-in-law of socialite figure John F. Kennedy, Jr., she and her sister Carolyn were killed when the plane they were traveling in crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.   The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that the probable cause was the pilot’s failure to maintain control during descent over water at […]

Loren Murphy Berry (1888 - 1980)

Business Inovator. Born in Wabash, Indiana, he became known as “Mr. Yellow Pages” and was the foremost telephone directory publishers in the United States, handling one out of every four telephone directories in the United States. In 1910, he began The Ohio Guide Printing Company which soon concentrated his efforts on a telephone directory operation. […]

Sidney Bernstein (1899 - 1993)

Lord Sidney Bernstein of Leigh, founder of Granada Television. He was also a film producer, most notably Hitchcock’s “Rope”(1948). (bio by: Kieran Smith)

Victor Jules “Trader Vic” Bergeron, Jr (1902 - 1984)

Businessman. He founded the Trader Vic’s chain of Polynesian restaurants. At the height of “Tiki” popularity, Trader Vic’s had more than two dozen locations around the world. The chain still survives today. Bergeron became acquainted with the food business as a child, when his father was a waiter at San Francisco’s famed Fairmont Hotel and […]

Karl Benz (1844 - 1929)

Engineer, inventor of the two stroke engine and founder of the Benz & Cie. company that later merged with the Daimler Motorengesellschaft AG, which is still a successful business in Germany today.  Family links:  Spouse:  Bertha Ringer Benz (1849 – 1944)* *Calculated relationship

William Burnett Benton (1900 - 1973)

US Senator, Businessman. Benton was president of Bowles & Bowles advertising agency (1929-1935), vice-president of the University of Chicago (1937-1945) and Chairman of the board of Encyclopedia Brittanica (1943-1967). He served as a United States Senator from Connecticut (1949-1953) and Assistant Secretary of State (1945-1947). (bio by: K)  Family links:  Spouse:  Helen Hemingway Benton (1901 […]

Michael Late Benedum (1869 - 1959)

Oil Magnate, Philanthropist. After an early career selling milling machinery, he became involved in the oil industry with the South Penn Oil Company, an affiliate of Standard Oil. He reached the position of Assistant General Land Agent for South Penn in 1892, but left and founded the Benedum-Trees Oil Company in partnership with Joseph Trees. […]

Jennie Carter Benedict (1860 - 1928)

Author, Businesswoman. She attended culinary classes at the Boston Cooking School in Boston, Massachusetts with future culinary expert Fanny Farmer. She was the creator of Benedictine Cheese, a sandwich spread made from cucumbers and cream cheese. She published her first cook book, “The Blue Ribbon” in 1902. (bio by: Mike Maloney)

Vincent Hugo Bendix (1881 - 1945)

Inventor, Industrialist. Born in Moline, Illinois, he was noted as a pioneer for his developments in the automobile and aircraft industry. In the early 1900s, he designed his own car, the Bendix Motor Buggy and his Bendix mechanical starters and brakes were the auto industry’s standard by the 1930s. During World War II, he developed […]

Henri Bendel (1868 - 1936)

Businessman. He was America’s foremost clothes designer during his time.  Family links:  Parents:  William Louis Bendel (1837 – 1874)  Mary Plonsky Bendel Falk (1839 – 1915)  Spouses:  Blanche Lehman Bendel (1862 – 1895)*  Abraham Beekman Bastedo (1877 – 1953)*  Siblings:  Samuel Bendel (1864 – 1935)*  Isaac Bendel (1867 – 1952)*  Henri Bendel (1868 – 1936) […]

Santos Benavides (1823 - 1891)

Wealthy Laredo merchant and rancher, he was known as the “Merchant Prince of the Rio Grande.”  Mayor of Laredo, 1856-59; chief justice of Webb County; member of Texas house of representatives (three terms, 1879-84).  It is widely believed that he was promoted to the rank of general by the state of Texas,  for service during […]

Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858 - 1908)

Businessman, US Congressman. The son of financier August Belmont Sr., he was born into a family of wealth and privilege. He attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, graduating in 1880. He served a year as a Midshipman before resigning his commission in 1881. When his father died in 1890, he inherited much […]

August “The Younger” Belmont (1853 - 1924)

Financier, Sportsman. The son of August Belmont, Sr. he was birthed into the wealth of the banking and international political scene that his father had constructed as a Prussian immigrant. An 1874 graduate of Harvard University, he is credited, through his love for sports and being a champion sprinter with inventing spiked track shoes.  Upon […]

August “The Elder” Belmont (1816 - 1890)

Financier. Born in Alzei, Rhensih, Prussia he started his banking career early by working at the entry level for the prominent House of Rothchilds at the tender age of fourteen, working his way up to positions in Frankfort and Naples then becoming their American representative in New York in 1837. His time in America proved […]

Max Bell (1912 - 1972)

Canadian press baron, financier, sportsman. After striking it rich at Leduc strike in the Alberta oil patch, Bell bought several western Canadian newspapers, forming FP Publications. At one time he was the largest shareholder in Canadian Pacific. He had earlier been a major shareholder in the Hudson’s Bay Company and tried to take it over. […]

Sosthenes Behn (1884 - 1957)

Businessman. His first name was Greek for “life strength,” and he was born in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands. He and his brother Hernand was educated at St. Thomas, Ajaccio, Corsica, St. Barbe and Paris, France. His father was Danish and his mother French-Italian. In 1906, Behn and his brother took over a sugar business […]

Julius Beer (1970 - 1970)

Financier.  Proprietor of “The Observer.”  Family links:  Spouse:  Thyrza Beer (____ – 1881)*  Children:  Ada Sophia Beer*  Frederick Beer (____ – 1903)* *Calculated relationship

Geoffrey Beene (1924 - 2004)

Fashion Designer. Born in Haynesville, Louisiana, he was a graduate of Haynesville High School. He entered Tulane University in 1941 in Pre-Med, as was common in his family. In 1945 he decided Medicine was not for him and he moved to New York. He began to study at the Traphagen School of Fashion in New […]

Walter Herschel Beech (1891 - 1950)

Aviation Pioneer. He began his career in aviation by building a glider of his own design at age 14. By 1932 he co-founded Beech Aircraft Company with his wife, Olive Ann. His early Beechcrafts set many distance and speed records. During World War II, Beech turned the entire production of his company to defense, producing […]

Maxwell Wilbur Becton (1970 - 1951)

Businessman. Co-founder of Fortune 500 Company Becton Dickson.  Family links:  Spouse:  Valerie Prentiss Becton (1882 – 1938)

Warren A. Bechtel (1872 - 1933)

Industrialist. Engineer. Founder of the international firm that bears his name.  Family links:  Spouse:  Clara Alice West Bechtel (1873 – 1941)*  Children:  Stephen Davison Bechtel (1900 – 1989)*  Kenneth Karl Bechtel (1904 – 1978)*  Alice Bechtel Eubanks (1912 – 1998)* *Calculated relationship