Bill Graham

popular name: Jay Gould

date_of_death: December 2, 1892

age: 56

cause_of_death: Tuberculosis

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Jay Gould was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the original Robber Barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him one of the wealthiest men of the late nineteenth century. Gould made his fortune by controlling the price of the stocks he bought as well as the stock market itself. He traded in the stocks of his own companies, using banks he was associated with to finance his speculations, all the while bribing legislators and judges. From 1867 to 1872 he was a power and a terror on Wall Street. Gould was an unpopular figure during his life so much so that his funeral was sparsely attended. The Jay Gould mausoleum can be found at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

popular name: Leona Helmsley

date_of_death: August 20, 2007

age: 87

cause_of_death: Congestive heart failure

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Leona Helmsley began her career in real estate, rising from brokerage work to executive positions before meeting Harry Helmsley in the late 1960s. After Harry dumped his wife of 30+ years Leona married him in 1972. Having lost a major lawsuit that caused financial devastation and the loss of her real estate license, she took an increasingly important role in managing the Helmsley hotel empire. She became president of a chain of more than 20 hotels and gained a reputation as a highly demanding manager who closely supervised operations and marketing. As a couple, Harry and Leona expanded their holdings beyond office buildings into luxury hotels. Their empire included the Helmsley Palace Hotel, the Park Lane Hotel, and numerous other hotels across the United States. Their combined holdings were estimated in the billions of dollars. The Helmsleys' careers were overshadowed by a major tax-fraud scandal in the late 1980s. Investigators alleged that personal expenses related to their luxury residences had been improperly charged to business entities (that and she also refused to pay vendors for their labor). Harry was considered too ill to stand trial, but Leona was convicted in 1989 on multiple counts including tax evasion and filing false tax returns. She served about 19 months in prison after her sentence was reduced on appeal. She died alone at her mansion, Dunnellen Hall, at the age of 87. She was laid to rest at Sleep Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, NY.

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.