William Procter

popular name: Cyrus West Field

date_of_death: July 12, 1892

age: 72

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Cyrus Field (1819-1892) spearheaded the mission to lay the first telegraphic cable across the Atlantic Ocean. As the head of a paper company, he amassed wealth that he used to finance his idea of the transatlantic cable. Leading the Atlantic Telegraph Company, he arranged for the British and American naval ships Agamemnon and Niagara to lay the cable. On August 16, 1858, the first transatlantic message was sent from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan. The cable stopped working three weeks later. In 1866, the Great Eastern successfully laid a functioning and more durable cable across the Atlantic. In later years, he supported other trans-ocean cables from Hawaii to Asia and Australia.

popular name: James Mayer de Rothschild

date_of_death: November 17, 1868

age: 76

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (1792–1868) was a prominent 19th-century banker and a key figure in the Rothschild banking family. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, he was the second son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the patriarch who established the family's banking empire. James moved to Paris in the early 1800s, where he and his sons started as luxury item dealers and coin and commercial paper traders. James played a critical role in the development of the Rothschild banking network, particularly in France, and became one of the wealthiest men of his time. James was instrumental in financing the construction of major infrastructure projects, such as railways, and was also involved in international finance, including lending to European governments. Throughout his life, he was a key player in European politics, often working behind the scenes to support governments with financial backing, particularly during the revolutions of 1848 and the Crimean War. Baron James Rothschild’s success and wealth solidified the Rothschild family as one of the most influential banking dynasties in Europe during the 19th century. He passed away in 1868, and his legacy continued through his descendants, who continued to manage and expand the family's financial empire. It is estimated that the total collective wealth of all the Rothschild families combined exceed $1.0 trillion dollars. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris, France.

popular name: Tom Carvel

date_of_death: October 21, 1990

age: 84

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Tom Carvel was the creator of soft serve ice cream and one of the founding fathers of the franchise system in America. Carvel, a Greek immigrant, had been an auto mechanic in New York, then worked on refrigeration units for the U.S. Army, which led to him driving an ice cream truck in Westchester County, N.Y. The story goes that in the early 1930s, his truck got a flat tire on a hot day. Instead of wasting the ice cream in the back, he pulled into a parking lot and started selling it as it became soft. His newfound customers loved it, and he had an epiphany that soft ice cream could be a good business. A self-made success story, his name is synonymous with the product he created—soft-serve ice cream. He was also the first chief executive officer of a company who served as his own spokesperson/commercial announcer for radio and television. He proved that movie-star looks and a professional “announcing voice” were not necessary for building product sales. Carvel’s gravelly voice did just fine in creating effective commercials. “Thinny thin ice cream for your fatty fat friends” may perhaps be the most memorable (if not most offensive) of his ad lines. Those humble beginnings eventually grew into the Carvel ice cream chain with 850 locations and a fortune conservatively estimated at around $80 million at the time of his death. Soon after the legal fighting started and it hasn’t stopped yet.