Sir Michael Sobell (1892 - 1993)

Industrial magnate. Came to England at age of 11. Eventually became Chairman of the Uk General Electric Company  in 1961. Knighted in 1972. A noted philanthropist who donated to a wide variety of Jewish and non-Jewish charities. (bio by: David Conway)

Sam Sniderman (1920 - 2012)

Canadian Music Figure. He is best remembered as the founder of Sam the Record Man, the Canadian record store chain. He was raised in the Jewish enclave known as Kensington Market in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He attended high school at Harbord Collegiate Institute and in 1937 began selling records in his brother Sidney’s store, Sniderman […]

Sir Thomas Smythe (1970 - 1625)

Entrepreneur,  Diplomat. First Governor of the East India Company. He was the son of a leading customs officer and made his fortune as a merchant, being a member of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers and the Worshipful Company of Skinners. In 1600 he was elected as the first Governor of the newly formed East India […]

Wrede Howard Smith (1921 - 2007)

Business Magnate. He was the grandson and son of American Popcorn Company founders, C.H. Smith and Howard Smith. He began a lifetime career at the company in 1945 and spent six decades as CEO of the Jolly Time Popcorn Company. Recognized as trend expert, his accomplishments included distribution of popcorn packs to theaters, the beginning […]

William Wallace Smith (1970 - 1970)

Business Magnate. He and brother Andrew Smith took over restaurant and cough drop business in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1866 when their father, James Smith, the founder died. Later, to distinguish their brand from other imitations they registered their pictures as trademarks and positioned same on their product packaging above words trade and mark. William […]

William Henry Smith (1792 - 1865)

His mother founded the chain of stationery shops which still bear his name. W.H.Smith is Britain’s leading High Street stationery store. (bio by: Kieran Smith)

Troy N. Smith, Sr (1922 - 2009)

Businessman, Entrepreneur. He was the founder of the Sonic Drive-In food chain, formerly known as Top Hat. Raised in east-central Oklahoma, he served in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War, before returning home to Oklahoma where he worked as a milk and bread delivery man. Between 1948 and 1953 he operated a […]

Roger Bonham Smith (1925 - 2007)

Business executive. Former chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors Corporation who began with General Motors in 1949 as an accounting clerk, moved up to treasurer in 1970 and then vice president in 1971. Became chairman and chief executive on Jan. 1, 1981. He led the company as import brands began to expand their […]

Preserved Smith (1820 - 1887)

Partner in the Barney and Smith Railroad Car Company.

Lyman Cornelius Smith (1850 - 1910)

Inventor, Businessman. Smith made his first fortune in the livestock commission business, capitalizing on the westward movement. In 1887 he began manufacturing breech-loading firearms. Rights to the L.C. Smith shotgun were sold to Hunter Arms Company in 1889 which continued to manufacture it until 1945 when the business was sold to Martin Firearms Company. On […]

Jay Hungerford Smith (1855 - 1970)

Businessman. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1877 as a pharmaceutical chemist and became a drugstore operator. He founded the J. Hungerford Smith Company, manufacturers and suppliers of fruit syrups for soda fountains, after discovering an interest in, and talent for, the development of superior syrups while working with drugstore fountains. The company […]

Horace Smith (1808 - 1893)

Born in Cheshire, Massachusetts, Horace Smith was employed by the U. S. Armory service from 1824 to 1842, when he moved to Newton, Connecticut. He was employed by various gun makers up to the 1840s, when he moved to Norwich, Connecticut. He is then listed as a partner of Cranston & Smith. It is known […]

George Hunter Smith (1970 - 1939)

Wealthy industrialist, financier and philanthropist.  Family links:  Spouse:  Clara Boggs Smith (1868 – 1946)* *Calculated relationship

Francis Marion “Borax” Smith (1846 - 1931)

Western Businessman. Born in Richmond, Wisconsin, at the age of 21 he went west to seek wealth and became known as the “Borax King”. In 1872, he discovered a rich supply of ulexite at Teel’s Marsh, Nevada. He staked a claim, started a company with his brother Julius and established a works at the edge […]

Sir Donald Alexander Smith (1820 - 1914)

Canadian fur trader, railway financier and diplomat. Sir Donald Alexander Smith was Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company (1889-1914). Financier behind the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Drove the Last Spike in Canada’s first transcontinental railway on November 7, 1885. Member of the Canadian House of Commons (1871-1878, 1887-1896). President, The Bank of Montreal; […]

Byron Laflin Smith (1853 - 1914)

Founder of the Northern Trust Company, a major financial institution.  Family links:  Spouse:  Carrie Cornelia Stone Smith (1856 – 1929)*  Children:  Walter Byron Smith (1878 – 1945)*  Bruce Donald Smith (1885 – 1952)* *Calculated relationship

Andrew Smith (1970 - 1970)

Business Magnate. He and brother William Wallace Smith took over restaurant and cough drop business in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1866 when their father, James Smith, the founder died. Later, to distinguish their brand from other imitations they registered their pictures as trademarks and positioned same on their product packaging above words trade and mark. […]

A.O. Smith (1970 - 1970)

Businessman. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he began in 1874, as a parts maker for baby carriages and other hardware specialties. In 1899, he developed the world’s first pressed steel automobile frames and incorporated the A. O. Smith Company in Milwaukee, in 1904. To date, the A. O. Smith Corporation is a global leader applying innovative […]

Samuel Sloan (1817 - 1907)

Railroad magnate. When Samuel Sloan started out for himself, New York was a small and primitive community. His first job was at the foot of the list of clerks of McBride & Company, a well-known (Irish linen) importing house. When about twenty-six years old, Mr. Sloan married Miss Margaret Elmendorf of Somerville, N.J., a daughter […]

Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr (1875 - 1966)

American corporate executive and philanthropist, best known as the longtime chairman of General Motors Corporation (GM). He was born Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. in New Haven, Connecticut on May 23, 1875, the son of a coffee and tea importer. In 1892, at the age of 17, he graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a […]

Col Christopher Columbus “C.C.” Slaughter, Sr (1837 - 1919)

Western Businessman. He was a ranching pioneer, banker and philanthropist, noted as the “Cattle King of Texas”. As a boy he worked cattle with his father and at age twelve helped drive the family’s ninety-two-head herd to a ranch on the Trinity River in Freestone County, Texas, where the family moved in 1852. At age […]

Jack H. Skirball (1896 - 1985)

Movie Producer, Developer, Philantropist. Skirball attended the University of Cincinnati and Western Reserve College in Cleveland then went on to study for the rabbinate at Hebrew Union College. After his ordination in 1921, he served as an assistant rabbi in Cleveland for two years and rabbi of a temple in Evansville, Indiana, for seven years. […]

Harry Ford Sinclair (1876 - 1956)

Industrialist.  Founder of Sinclair Oil and key figure in the Teapot Dome scandal.  Born in Wheeling,  West Virginia and raised in Independence,  Kansas,  he initially worked as a pharmacist with his father.  He entered the oil industry as a lease broker in 1901 and with a partner,  Edward White,  formed the White Oil Company.  An […]

Robert Simpson (1834 - 1897)

Founder of Simpson’s Department Store.

J. R. “Jack” Simplot (1909 - 2008)

Businessman. Born John Richard Simplot, at his death he was the oldest billionaire on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, with a fortune of over $3 billion. At age 14 he quit school and left home, working on a farm while looking for opportunities to make money, and eventually using the profit from several […]

Warren L. Simmons (1927 - 2006)

Entrepreneur. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, Simmons worked as a pilot for Pan American Airlines from 1950 until 1970. After Pan American, Simmons looked towards developing what at the time was an unsightly San Francisco waterfront. On October 4, 1978, after years of planning and pushing, Simmons officially opened San Francisco’s Pier […]

Harold Clark Simmons (1931 - 2013)

Businessman. Born in the town of Golden, Texas to two teachers of modest means, he enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received both his Bachelors Degree (1951) and his Masters Degree  (1952) in economics. Becoming a bank examiner, at the age of 29, using money he had saved and a bank […]

Jacob Siegel (1841 - 1924)

Founded American Lady Corset company.  Family links:  Spouse:  Rosalie Blumenstein Siegel (1849 – 1917)*  Children:  Joseph Siegel (1874 – 1933)*  Eugene Siegel (1878 – 1948)*  Leo Siegel (1888 – 1947)*  Adele Siegel Mayer (1889 – 1944)* *Calculated relationship

Benjamin Siegel (1860 - 1936)

Founded B Siegel and Company.  Family links:  Spouse:  Sophie Siegel (1876 – 1955)*  Children:  Frederick Hearst Siegel (1905 – 1908)* *Calculated relationship

Rufus Sibley (1841 - 1928)

Businessman. He co-founder of Sibley, Lindsay and Curr, which was for over a hundred years one of the most successful department stores in the United States. It was eventually bought out by Kaufmanns in the late 20th century.  (bio by: Mount Hope NY)  Family links:  Spouses:  Martha A Sibley (1846 – 1883)*  Elizabeth Conkey Sibley […]