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The Man Who Found the Money is a critical biography of John Stewart Kennedy, an "Eastern" banker, whose contributions to railroad development are often left unmentioned in the writing of American railroad history. John Stewart Kennedy (1830-1909), a Scots immigrant and entrepreneur, was a pioneer in ...

The Man Who Found the Money is a critical biography of John Stewart Kennedy, an "Eastern" banker, whose contributions to railroad development are often left unmentioned in the writing of American railroad history. John Stewart Kennedy (1830-1909), a Scots immigrant and entrepreneur, was a pioneer in this building boom. His rise to prosperity occurred because of his ability to mobilize the capital; in the end he helped create railroads that still form part of the backbone of America's transportation network. By the time he was thirty-eight, Kennedy had formed his own banking company and had taken advantage of the booming economy. In the years to follow, Kennedy carved out an impressive niche in the world of railroad finance. His dual role as commission merchant and private banker provided him with information, contacts, prestige, and an uncanny sense of timing which allowed him to raise new capital while attracting investors into new ventures. Through his contributions, several railroads were reorganized and,transformed into the more prominent lines still in use today. Later in his life, after he retired from banking and finance, Kennedy devoted his time and money to charity and civic activity. At his death in 1909, a large portion of his immense fortune was distributed to a wide range of charities and philanthropies.

Wall Street investment bankers who have built careers on reputations of integrity resent the Boeskys, Milkens, and Keatings of their professions even more than the rest of us do. This biography records the life of a man who has contributed significantly to the soundness of our nation's financial ...

Wall Street investment bankers who have built careers on reputations of integrity resent the Boeskys, Milkens, and Keatings of their professions even more than the rest of us do. This biography records the life of a man who has contributed significantly to the soundness of our nation's financial systems without contributing to that industry's scandalous headlines: Edwin L. Kennedy. Born on an Ohio farm in 1904, Edwin Kennedy viewed education as his only chance to escape from what he referred to as "restricted financial circumstances". After working his way through high school and Ohio University, teaching briefly in a junior high school, and taking graduate studies at Ohio State University, Kennedy moved on to Wall Street. Throughout a business career that began on the eve of the Great Depression in 1929, Kennedy has masterminded a wide variety of dealings, often converting adversities into opportunities, without compromising his principles. Business leaders, past and present, interviewed across the nation for this biography, invariably offered that characterization. Meanwhile, Kennedy and his wife, Ruth, a 1930 graduate of Ohio University, followed a pattern of philanthropy based on their belief that "the only things we really own in this life are those that we intelligently give away". Time and time again higher education has benefitted from their abundant generosity. Ruth's death in 1980 did not change the pattern they had established together; her husband continued to weigh what he felt certain her opinion would be whenever he made a decision. The Kennedys' story is a story of success by most measures. It is particularly distinguished by a lifetime of love and companionship betweenthem, maintaining honor in the marketplace, and a mutual commitment to supporting education.

William Rand Kenan, Jr. (1872-1965) is best remembered throughout his native North Carolina as a major benefactor of his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But he was also a gifted scientist and business executive. In this first comprehensive biography, Walter Campbell ...

William Rand Kenan, Jr. (1872-1965) is best remembered throughout his native North Carolina as a major benefactor of his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But he was also a gifted scientist and business executive. In this first comprehensive biography, Walter Campbell charts Kenan's achievements in areas as diverse as chemistry, dairy science, media management, and railroad and resort development. While still a student at UNC, Kenan played an important role in the discovery of calcium carbide - the major component in the manufacture of acetylene - which led to the formation of Union Carbide Company. In 1899, he became a consultant to Standard Oil cofounder and Florida developer Henry Morrison Flagler, a relationship that was strengthened when Kenan's sister Mary Lily became Flagler's third wife in 1901. His partnership with Flagler was a lifelong source of frustration for Kenan. Campbell chronicles Kenan's struggle to be recognized as a success in his own right, as he guided the vast network of Flagler businesses, as well as his own flourishing enterprises, through a tumultuous period that saw two world wars, a speculative land boom, and a depression. Written with access to Kenan family papers, this biography offers new insights into Kenan's many successes as well as his disappointments, particularly his keen sense of having lived his life in the shadow of those around him. It also includes the first balanced look at the troubled life of Mary Lily, who married Robert Worth Bingham after Flagler's death, and disputes the commonly accepted account of animosity between the Kenans and the Bingham family stemming from Mary Lily's untimely death in 1917.

One of the major figures in American history, Andrew Carnegie was a ruthless businessman who made his fortune in the steel industry and ultimately gave most of it away. He used his wealth to ascend the world's political stage, influencing the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and ...

One of the major figures in American history, Andrew Carnegie was a ruthless businessman who made his fortune in the steel industry and ultimately gave most of it away. He used his wealth to ascend the world's political stage, influencing the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. In retirement, Carnegie became an avid promoter of world peace, only to be crushed emotionally by World War I. In this compelling biography, Peter Krass reconstructs the complicated life of this titan who came to power in America's Gilded Age. He transports the reader to Carnegie's Pittsburgh, where hundreds of smoking furnaces belched smoke into the sky and the air was filled with acrid fumes . . . and mill workers worked seven-day weeks while Carnegie spent months traveling across Europe. Carnegie explores the contradictions in the life of the man who rose from lowly bobbin boy to build the largest and most profitable steel company in the world. Krass examines how Carnegie became one of the greatest philanthropists ever known-and earned a notorious reputation that history has yet to fully reconcile with his remarkable accomplishments.