Robert Todd Storz (1924 - 1964)

Radio Pioneer. Robert Todd Storz is commonly credited with inventing the Top 40 Radio format during the mid 1950s while he worked KOWH, an Omaha radio station. The story goes that while sitting in a bar near his station, he noticed that the patrons kept playing the same popular songs over and over on the […]

Frank Storrs (1863 - 1939)

Published Theater programs and built movie theaters.  Family links:  Parents:  Nathan Strauss (1831 – 1905)  Siblings:  Rosa Strauss Hirschheimer (1859 – 1943)*  Frank Storrs (1863 – 1939)  Yetta Strauss Newbury (1869 – 1958)* *Calculated relationship

Herbert Stuart Stone (1970 - 1915)

Publisher and Partner in Stone & Kimball. (bio by: Sparky99)  Note: died on the Lusitania

Alexander Turney Stewart (1803 - 1876)

Business Magnate.  Born in Lisburn,  Ireland,  he emigrated to New York in 1823. In 1825 he opened a dry goods store,  A. T. Stewart & Company;  by the 1860s it had grown into the largest retail store in the world.  He also had international branches of his company and owned several mills and factories. During […]

Harry Mosley Stevens (1857 - 1934)

Businessman. Inventor of hot dog in a roll.  A food concessionaire for sports and other events, he introduced it at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904.  Family links:  Spouse:  Mary Wragg Stevens (1857 – 1941)* *Calculated relationship

John Batterson Stetson (1830 - 1906)

Businessman. He learned the hat trade from his father. After his father’s death he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and worked for a brick manufacturer. When the factory and business were ruined by floods, Stetson headed west to Colorado to find his fortune in gold. His hat making skills proved useful as he used the […]

Ross Shaw Sterling, Sr (1875 - 1949)

Texas Governor, Businessman. A farmer until 1896, he owned several businesses during his lifetime. He donated his home in LaPorte, Texas to the Houston Optimist Club in memory of his son, Ross, Sterling, Jr. who passed away in 1924. The home became a boys camp. Sour Lake, Texas was the site of his feed store […]

Jan Stenbeck (1942 - 2002)

Business Magnate. A Harvard Business School graduate, he was chairman of the board for Kinnevik, a leading Swedish combine in IT, telecom and media. Tele2, TV3, Radio Rix and Metro International, were some of the companies that helped him building an empire estimated to more than 10 billion dollars. He was a self-willing, highly efficient […]

William Steinway (1835 - 1896)

Businessman. The son of Steinway Pianos Company found Henry E. Steinway, he oversaw the expansion and growth of the company. Spouse: Regina Roos, divorced 1876.  Spouse 2: Elizabeth C. Ranft 1853 – 1893.  Family links:  Parents:  Henry Englehard Steinway (1797 – 1871)  Children:  George Augustus Steinway (1865 – 1898)*  Paula Theodora Steinway Von Bernuth (1866 […]

Henry Ziegler Steinway (1915 - 2008)

Piano Manufacturer, Businessman. He was the great-grandson of Heinrich Engelhard Steinway, who established the Steinway Company as the leading piano manufacturer in America in 1853. In 1942, he became a factory manager at his family’s company and was president of Steinway & Sons in 1955. He served in that role for more than 20 years […]

Henry Englehard Steinway (1797 - 1871)

Businessman, Manufacturer. He started Steinway and Sons Piano Company. (bio by: Find A Grave)  Family links:  Spouse:  Julianne Thiemer Steinway (1804 – 1877)*  Children:  Dorette Johanna Dorothee Juliane Steinway Ziegler (____ – 1900)*  Charles G. Steinway (1829 – 1865)*  Henry E. Steinway (1830 – 1865)*  William Steinway (1835 – 1896)*  Albert Steinway (1840 – 1877)* […]

Dawn Steel (1946 - 1997)

Motion Picture Mogul. Born in the Bronx, New York, daughter of Nat, a zipper salesman and Lillian, a businesswoman, who was the family’s sole support after Nat suffered a nervous breakdown. Steel got her start working for ‘Penthouse’ magazine as a merchandising director. Her creations included designer toilet paper which included images imprinted on the […]

Ellsworth Milton Statler (1863 - 1928)

Hotel Pioneer. At the age of 13, he obtained a job as belle boy at the McLure House Hotel, Virginia, starting a life long interest in the hotel business. With experience, he worked his way up applying methods to develop ideas to improve hotel service, efficiency and business. Through the McLure House, he turned an […]

Philip A. Starck (1860 - 1922)

Piano Manufacturer.  Philip Adam Starck established the P. A. Starck Piano Company with headquarters located in Chicago, Illinois.   He loved music and became interested in the inner workings of the piano early in his life. His story is one of the true rags to riches stories with him starting as an errand boy in […]

Leland Stanford (1824 - 1893)

19th Century politician and railroad tycoon. Best known as the founder of Stanford University.  Leland Stanford was born into affluent circumstances in 1824 near Albany, New York. He attended school until adolescence before being tutored at home in his teens. In his later teens he attended Clinton Liberal Institute and Cazenovia Seminary in New York […]

Edward Robinson Squibb (1819 - 1900)

Businessman. He founded Squibb Pharmaceuticals, which is today Bristol-Myers Squibb. He served as a Surgeon in the United States Navy from 1847 to 1857.  Family links:  Parents:  James Robinson Squibb (1796 – 1852)  Catherine Harrison Bonsal Squibb (1798 – 1833)  Spouse:  Caroline Lownds Cook Squibb (1833 – 1905)*  Children:  Edward Hamilton Squibb (1853 – 1929)* […]

David Robert Sprüngli-Baud (1970 - 1970)

Confectioner. Son of Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann and grandson of David Sprüngli of the Swiss Sprüngli chocolate dynasty. He inherited the Confiserie Sprüngli with shop and tea-room from his father in 1892 and successfully presided over it until 1924, when he turned it over to his son, Herman Sprüngli. Today, Confiserie Sprüngli has 19 branches in Switzerland […]

Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann (1816 - 1897)

Confectioner. He was one of the founders of the Swiss chocolate and candy company Lindt & Sprüngli. He began making chocolates in the confectionary shop of his father, David Sprüngli, in Zurich, Switzerland in 1845. He opened his own chocolate production company in 1847. In 1892, he turned the company over to his sons, David […]

Claus Spreckels (1828 - 1908)

Sugar magnate.  Family links:  Spouse:  Anna Christina Mangels Spreckels (1830 – 1910)*  Children:  John Diedrich Spreckels (1853 – 1926)*  Adolph Bernard Spreckels (1857 – 1924)*  Claus Augustus Spreckels (1858 – 1946)*  Emma C Spreckels Ferris Hutton (1870 – 1924)*  Rudolph Spreckels (1872 – 1958)* *Calculated relationship

Leo Spitz (1888 - 1956)

President of RKO International Pictures.

John George Taylor Spink (1888 - 1962)

Baseball publicist. Born in St. Louis, he was the son of Charles Spink. Two years before his son’s birth, Charles had abandoned a homesteading venture to assist his brother Alfred in founding Sporting News, a St. Louis-based weekly journal of sporting and theatrical news. Alfred soon left Charles in control of the struggling publication. By […]

Charles C. Spink (1864 - 1914)

With brother Al published the “Sporting News.”  Family links:  Spouse:  Charlotte Marie Taylor Spink (1870 – 1944)*  Children:  Freddie P Spink Christy (1892 – 1969)*  Frances Snaith Spink Merrell (1894 – 1953)* *Calculated relationship

Tobias Spengler (1816 - 1887)

Born in Germany, Spengler was one of the pioneer brewers in St. Louis. He was apprenticed to a soap manufacturer before coming to the U.S. In 1852 he came to Belleville, Illinois & established a small soap manufacturing company. He decided to move across the river to St. Louis in 1856 & purchase a brewery […]

Thomas Spencer (1970 - 1905)

Founder, along with Michael Marks, of the famous British High Street stores Marks & Spencer. (bio by: Kieran Smith)

John McCulloch Spencer (1917 - 1965)

Philanthropist, Political Leader. Born in New York City as Eric Winter, he was orphaned as a boy and adopted into the Troy, Ohio family that produced Spencer Corsets, a top selling women’s undergarment from the late 19th to mid 20th Centuries.  Spencer was educated at Alma College and Yale University.  A heavy drinker, he was […]

Elbridge Gerry Spaulding (1809 - 1897)

Civil War US Congressman. Served as Mayor of Buffalo, New York in 1847. Elected twice to represent New York’s 32nd District in the United States House of Representatives, serving first from 1849 to 1851, then from 1859 to 1863. During his first term he introduced the Legal Tender Act, saving the Union from financial disaster. […]

Samuel Sotheby (1805 - 1861)

Noted Auctioneer.

TV Soong (1893 - 1971)

TV Soong Upon returning to China TV Soong  worked for several industrial enterprises, and was then recruited by Sun Yat-sen to develop finances for his Canton government. After the success of Chiang Kai-shek’s Northern Expedition in 1927, TV Soong served in a succession of offices in the Nationalist Government,including governor of the Central Bank of China […]

Irene Hayes Solomon (1895 - 1975)

She was a Ziegfeld girl and businesswoman who owned Irene Hayes Wadley & Smythe, a leading Manhattan florist and Gallagher’s Steak House after the death of her husband Jack Solomon. She bought the florist Wadley & Smythe on Park Avenue, adding her name, as no new businesses were allowed on Park Avenue at that time. […]

Friedrich Soennecken (1848 - 1919)

Inventor of many office tools like a punch and a marking pen) and businessman, and founder of the Soenecken company that is still a successful business in Germany today.