Bill Graham

popular name: J. P. Morgan

date_of_death: March 31, 1913 (aged 75)

age: 75

cause_of_death: Acute attack of gastro enteritis

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: J.P. Morgan was a titan of American business. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries his position and connections put him squarely in the middle of the development of American industry. Of his generation John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was the most powerful banker, industrialist and art collector in America. Born in Connecticut, he was the third generation of a banking dynasty that he would go on to dwarf with his financial acumen and bullish instinct. His father Junius Spencer Morgan was a partner in a London-based merchant bank. Another ancestor, James Pierpont, founded Yale University. At the height of his powers in the 1890s, Morgan was said to control one sixth of America’s railway lines. In 1895 he and a consortium of bankers rescued America’s Gold Standard loaning the federal government more than $60 million. In addition to the bank that bore his name, Morgan invested in and subsequently bought the Carnegie Steel Company, Edison General Electric and the United States Steel Corporation. He also acquired the New York Times newspaper and founded the Metropolitan Club in New York when the Union Club blackballed his friend John King. Deeply offended, he instructed the architects ‘build me a club fit for gentlemen. Forget the expense’. However, Morgan was not content just in the banking world – he had many interests elsewhere. Adolph Ochs, publisher of the Chattanooga Times, secured a loan with J.P. Morgan’s help and managed to save the New York Times. His personal and business interests extended to steel and railroads. He purchased U.S. Steel from Andrew Carnegie and merged it with a few other firms to create United States Steel in 1901. Over 100 years later that firm is still going strong.

popular name: Seymour H. Knox I

date_of_death: May 17, 1915

age: 54

cause_of_death: Uremic coma

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Seymour Knox was a Buffalo, New York businessman who made his fortune in five-and-dime stores. He merged his more than 100 stores with those of his first cousins, Frank Winfield Woolworth and Charles Woolworth, to form the F. W. Woolworth Company. In fact, by the time of the 1911 incorporation of F. W. Woolworth Company, Knox was the second largest of six store operators with 98 U.S. and 13 Canadian locations. In 1912, he received $12 million of the $65 million merger proceeds and was appointed Director and Senior Vice-Principal of the Corporation. Knox is remembered as the pioneering city center store operator. His Detroit, Michigan store was the first outside of the agricultural and small-market towns. Many of the Woolworth friendly rivals emulated his plan

popular name: Nina Ricci

date_of_death: November 28, 1970

age: 87

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Mme. Ricci, who established her design house in 1932 and built a reputation before World War II for graceful, detailed and feminine clothes, was born in Turin, Italy. A near‐con temporary of Gabrielle Chanel, Mme. Ricci was almost the antithesis of the better‐known “Coco” Chanel, since she was neither a public personality nor a headline‐making designer. Her interest in fashion began in childhood, when she began dressing her dolls. At 13, she came to Paris and found work as a sewing girl, and after five years was promoted to the head of the workroom. At 22, she began designing her own models. The House of Nina Ricci grew rapidly throughout the thirties and their one-room maison de couture became 11 floors in 3 buildings, operations developed by WWII to include leather goods and fashion accessories. She was noted for the graceful draping of her designs, and for her practice of creating her designs on a live model— draping, arranging and cutting until she achieved the desired look.