Andrew William Mellon

He remained a bachelor for a long while, focusing all his attention on building his fortunes. He decided to get married quite late in life, at the age of 45. In 1900 he married a 20 year old English woman, Nora Mary McMullen. The couple had two children. His young wife however developed relationships with other men which led to a bitter divorce in 1912. He did not remarry.

Throughout his life he remained an active philanthropist. Along with his brother he had established a memorial for his father, the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research as a department of the University of Pittsburgh, which is today a part of Carnegie Mellon University. He donated generously to support art and research causes.

He was a prominent collector of arts and he donated a collection valued at $25 million to the U.S. government in 1937. He also donated $15 million to build the National gallery of Art to house the collection.

He was born on 24 March 1855 to Thomas Alexander Mellon and his wife Sarah Jane Negley. His father was a successful banker and lawyer in Pittsburgh. He was the fourth among his parents’ five sons.

From an early age he displayed signs of his financial abilities which would one day make him a great industrialist.

He enrolled at the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh) but did not stay to complete his studies; he left before his graduation to start a business with his brother, Richard.

His father helped him and his brother Richard to start a lumber and coal business in 1872 after he left college. The brothers worked hard and make their venture a profitable one, impressing their father very much.

After a few years the brothers joined their father’s banking firm, T. Mellon & Sons in 1880. Again Andrew displayed great business skills and soon had the ownership of the bank transferred to him.

In 1889, he helped to establish the Union Trust Company and the Union Savings Bank of Pittsburgh, which was formed as a subsidiary firm. His businesses in the financial sector were flourishing, encouraging him to branch out into other sectors as well.

He started investing in upcoming sectors like oil, steel, aluminum, shipbuilding and construction. He acquired large holdings in the American Locomotive Company, the Gulf Oil Company, and the Pittsburgh Coal Company.

He financed the industrialist Charles Martin Hall’s refinery, the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) which went on to become the world’s third largest producer of aluminum.

He featured on the cover of Time Magazine twice - in July 1923 and May 1928.