Edward Payson Ripley (1845 - 1920)

Business Magnate. First President of the reorganized Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad in 1895. The plaque on the door of the mausoleum bears the quote, “This is the sunset glow. The shadows will soon begin to lengthen. But if I have died to win the approbation of my contemporaries and to be of benefit […]

John Ringling (1866 - 1936)

Entertainer. Born Johann Nicholas Rüngeling, one of seven sons of German immigrant and harness maker, August Rüngeling, in McGregor, Iowa. After moving to Baraboo, Wisconsin, the brothers Ringling created and performed a vaudeville-type show in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, on November 27, 1882. John played the clown. Two years later, the Ringling Brothers were able to open […]

Charles Ringling (1863 - 1926)

Entertainer. Born Charles Edward Rüngeling, one of seven sons of German immigrant and harness maker, August Rüngeling. After moving to Baraboo, Wisconsin the brothers Ringling created and performed a vaudeville-type show in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, on November 27, 1882. Two years later, the Ringling Brothers were able to open their first circus. By 1887, the growing […]

George Washington Riggs (1813 - 1881)

Businessman,  Banker.  He was born in Georgetown, then a city in the District of Columbia, and brought up in Baltimore. In 1840 Riggs began a banking partnership with Thomas W. Corcoran. The bank was immediately successful and got a major boost in 1844, when the U.S. government assigned Corcoran & Riggs to be the only […]

Dean Richmond (1804 - 1866)

Railroad Magnate. Born in Barnard, Vermont, he was noted as one of the most influential individuals of New York’s railroad service. In 1842, He established a commission transportation business  and became a director in the Utica and Buffalo Railroad Company. With the establishment of the New York Central Railroad Company in 1853, he was chosen […]

Charles L. Richardson (1970 - 1862)

British merchant. Namesake of “The Richardson Affair,” known to the Japanese as the “Namamugi Jiken,” the “Namamugi Incident.” Following Commodore Matthew Perry’s forced treaty with the Japanese government, the Dutch, Russians and British quickly established similar agreements. The Japanese governing elite saw the incursion of western traders as inevitable but not entirely welcome. There was […]

Morris Rich (1847 - 1928)

Businessman. Along with his brother Emanuel, founded Rich’s Department Stores, which is one of the largest retail chains in the South.  (bio by: Evening Blues)  Family links:  Parents:  Joseph Rich (1809 – 1885)  Rose Teitelbaum Rich (1817 – 1875)  Spouse:  Maud Goldberg Rich (1857 – 1947)*  Children:  Rosalind Rich Rosenheim (1880 – 1961)*  Siblings:  Daniel […]

Louis Rich (1896 - 1970)

Businessman. He immigrated to America from Russia, arriving as a steerage passenger in 1906. Working as a Kosher butcher, he saved enough money to gradually bring his family to America, and open his own business. In 1921, he bought a truck and started the Rock Island Produce Company, in Rock Island, Illinois. His business sold […]

Emanuel Rich (1849 - 1897)

Businessman. With his brother Morris, he co-founded Rich’s Department Stores, one of the largest retail chains in the South.  Family links:  Parents:  Joseph Rich (1809 – 1885)  Rose Teitelbaum Rich (1817 – 1875)  Spouse:  Bertha Sarturius Rich (1859 – 1923)*  Children:  Walter H. Rich (1880 – 1947)*  Rubye Rich Strauss (1882 – 1955)*  Siblings:  Daniel […]

Cecil John Rhodes (1853 - 1902)

Imperialist, Entrepreneur, Colonialist. Namesake of the Rhodes Scholarship and the country of Rhodesia. Founder of the De Beers diamond mining company.

Richard Samuel Reynolds, Jr (1908 - 1980)

Businessman. President of the Reynolds Metals Co., (1948-1963) and was Chairman of the Board (1963- 1980). The company was originally founded by his father in 1928 and was grandnephew of the Reynolds who founded the tobacco company. He helped launch a Wall Street brokerage firm that went onto become part of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. […]

Abelard Reynolds (1785 - 1878)

Business magnate. In 1828, he built the Reynolds Arcade on Main Street in Rochester, New York, the first multi-level shopping center in America. The Western Union Telegraph Company was founded in the Reynolds Arcade and continued to maintain its central offices there for decades. He moved to Rochester from Red Hook NY around 1812 and […]

Charles Revson (1906 - 1975)

Businessman. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was a pioneering cosmetics industry executive who created and managed Revlon. He began working for the Elka Cosmetic Company when decided to go into business for himself. He started the Revlon Cosmetics Company which specialized in a line of nail polishes, lipsticks, marketed through beauty salons and later at […]

Marcel Renault (1970 - 1903)

Pioneer Industrialist,  Auto Racer.  With his brother Louis he founded the Renault company of automakers in 1899 and drove their cars in some of the world’s earliest sponsored races.  He was killed in a crash on a run from Paris to Madrid. Louis Renault is buried in Herqueville in Normandy. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)

Eliphalet Remington, II (1793 - 1861)

Weapons Inventor, Businessman. A trained blacksmith, at age 23 he invented and hand produced a hunting rifle that became so popular that he founded the “E. Remington and Sons” firearms manufacturing company. Later changed to “Remington Arms”, the rifles they produced became iconic in the American West, and are still highly sought today.  Family links: […]

John Reisenweber (1851 - 1931)

Restaurateur. He expanded his father’s modest 1856 tavern at the southwest corner of 8th Avenue and 58th Street in New York City into a nationally known establishment having 12 dining rooms and over 1,000 employees. According to his New York Times obituary, Reisenweber’s restaurant is credited as the birthplace of the modern cabaret, and, after […]

James Douglas Reid (1819 - 1901)

Business magnate. Although not the inventor, he was known as the “Father of the Telegraph,” being the first superintendent of the process in the U.S. and Europe, and publishing the first journals and history of the telegraph. He also built and ran several early telegraph lines, before the consolidation into Western Union by Hiram Sibley […]

Harry Burnett “H.B.” Reese, Sr (1879 - 1956)

Businessman. He was the founder of the “H.B. Reese Candy Company”, whose most famous product eventually became the “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup”. Entering candy manufacturing business in Hershey, Pennsylvania around 1917, by the mid-1920s he started to make an item called “peanut butter cups”. Due to sugar shortages during World War II he dropped other […]

John Redpath (1970 - 1869)

A building contractor who in 1854 built Canada’s first sugar refinery, importing sugar cane from the West Indies on his own ships. As a philanthropist he supported missions, colleges and hospitals. His son Peter financed the building of McGill’s Redpath Museum (to house the collections of Sir William Dawson) and the Redpath Library of McGill. […]

Orville Redenbacher (1907 - 1995)

Businessman. He is best remembered for his trademark bowtie, thick black glasses, and his folksy manner in television commercials of the 1960s and 1970s, where he advertised his “Orville Redenbacher Gourmet Popping Corn”. Born in Brazil, Indiana, he was the third child and only son of a general farmer in Clay County, Indiana.  In 1924, […]

Jheri Redding (1907 - 1998)

Hair-care products guru who introduced the concept of pH balance to shampoo. (bio by: Damien)

Harold Rea (1907 - 1985)

Sportsman/Business Executive. Well-known sportsman who devoted most of his time to volunteer and organize projects involving sports. He served as the national President of the YMCA from 1963 to 1965. (bio by: K)

George Henry Rawlings (1855 - 1909)

Business Magnate. Born in St. Louis, Rawlings began his business career as a young boy with the M.J. Steinburg Hat and Fur Company for three and a half years. In 1871 he became associated with Albright Brothers Sporting Goods and remained with them until 1879. He was the manager of the gun department for C […]

John Jakob Raskob (1879 - 1950)

Businessman, Political Leader,  Philanthropist. Educated at Bryant and Stratton Business Institute, in 1900 he was hired as Pierre DuPont’s private secretary. In 1914 DuPont became DuPont Company President, and Raskob became Treasurer. Raskob facilitated the DuPont purchase of a stake in General Motors and creation of General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) in the early 1920s, […]

William Ramsay (1868 - 1914)

Inventor, Manufacturer. In 1906 this native Australian invented Kiwi Boot Polish. “Kiwi”, the national bird of New Zealand was chosen as the brand name to honor his New Zealander wife, Ann Elizabeth Meek Ramsay. He began his business by loading his horsedrawn wagon with his polish and selling it door to door to farmers throughout […]

William Chapman Ralston (1826 - 1875)

Banker, Businessman. A native of Ohio, Ralston moved to Panama after the discovery of gold in California and joined a banking and shipping firm that carried miners to San Francisco. In 1854, he settled in San Francisco himself and spent the next ten years with various banking firms. In 1864, he co-founded the Bank of […]

Walter William Ralphs, Sr (1884 - 1971)

Supermarket chain executive. Walter William Ralphs was the nephew of Ralphs grocery store founder George A. Ralphs. When the company incorporated as the Ralphs Grocery Company in 1909, Walter W. Ralphs was one of three partners, along with his uncle and his father, Walter B. Ralphs. In 1914, after the death of George A. Ralphs, […]

Walter Benjamin Ralphs (1854 - 1954)

Supermarket chain executive. Walter B. Ralphs went into business with his older brother, George A. Ralphs, forming Ralphs Brothers Grocers in downtown Los Angeles in 1875. Prior to entering the grocery business, Walter Ralphs operated a ranch in San Bernardino County, California. After George A. Ralphs died in 1914, Walter Ralphs, his two sons, and […]

George Albert Ralphs (1850 - 1914)

Businessman. Founder of Ralphs Supermarket chain, the largest market chain in Southern California.  Family links:  Parents:  Richard Ralphs (1812 – 1877)  Mary Newell Ralphs (1820 – 1887)  Spouses:  Wallula Ralphs (1876 – 1941)  Mary E Ralphs (1853 – 1880)*  Children:  William W Ralphs (1875 – 1876)*  Minnie Elizabeth Ralphs White (1879 – 1942)*  Walter Ralphs […]

Elmer L. Ralphs (1886 - 1930)

Supermarket chain executive. Elmer Ralphs was the nephew of George A. Ralphs, founder of the Ralphs grocery store chain. After George Ralphs died in 1914, management of the chain was passed to his son, Albert, and his two nephews, Elmer and Walter W. Ralphs. At the time of his death, from blood poisoning at the […]