Jay Gould

popular name: Hamilton McKown Twombly

date_of_death: 01/11/1910

age: 60

cause_of_death: Tuberculosis of the larynx

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Hamilton McKown Twombly was a successful American businessman husband to Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly. In 1892, Twombly and his wife were both included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families led by Mrs. Astor, as published in The New York Times. His wife survived him by 42 years and his legacy Florham Estate - then the 10th largest residential home in America (which is now Fairleigh Dickinson University).

popular name: Irv Robbins

date_of_death: May 5, 2008

age: 90

cause_of_death: Complications due to old age

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Irvine Robbins was a Canadian-born American businessman. He co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1945 with his partner and brother-in-law Burt Baskin. Robbins grew up scooping ice cream at his family’s dairy. In 1945, he opened his first cone shop, Snowbird Ice Cream in Glendale, Calif., offering 21 flavors (when other cone shops only served vanilla, chocolate and strawberry). The following year, his brother-in-law Burton Baskin also opened a shop, Burton’s Ice Cream, in Pasadena. Within three years, Robbins had five Snowbird locations and Baskin had three Burton’s branches. Robbins’ father reportedly advised the two against running a business together because their individual creativity might be stifled. But the in-laws decided to combine their operations. In 1949, they purchased a dairy in Burbank, Calif., which gave them control over production. The two went on to franchise new stores, which helped them grow rapidly. In 1953, they renamed the company Baskin-Robbins, focusing on 31 flavors — one for each day of the month. By 1967, when the chain consisted of about 500 units, the partners sold the company for an estimated $12 million. Six months later, Burt Baskin died of a heart attack at age 54.

popular name: George Peabody

date_of_death: November 4, 1869

age: 74

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: George Peabody was an American financier and philanthropist and is widely regarded as the father of modern philanthropy. Born into a poor family in Massachusetts, Peabody went into business in dry goods and later into banking. In 1837 he moved to London (which was then the capital of world finance) where he became the most noted American banker and helped to establish the young country's international credit. Having no son of his own to whom he could pass on his business, Peabody took on Junius Spencer Morgan as a partner in 1854 and their joint business would go on to become J.P. Morgan & Co. after Peabody's 1864 retirement. In his old age, Peabody won worldwide acclaim for his philanthropy. He founded the Peabody Trust in Britain and the Peabody Institute and George Peabody Library in Baltimore, and was responsible for many other charitable initiatives. Peabody would have been the first American buried in Westminster Abbey in London had his will not stipulated that his final resting place would be near his boyhood home.