Jennie Carter Benedict (1860 - 1928)

Author, Businesswoman. She attended culinary classes at the Boston Cooking School in Boston, Massachusetts with future culinary expert Fanny Farmer. She was the creator of Benedictine Cheese, a sandwich spread made from cucumbers and cream cheese. She published her first cook book, “The Blue Ribbon” in 1902. (bio by: Mike Maloney)

Vincent Hugo Bendix (1881 - 1945)

Inventor, Industrialist. Born in Moline, Illinois, he was noted as a pioneer for his developments in the automobile and aircraft industry. In the early 1900s, he designed his own car, the Bendix Motor Buggy and his Bendix mechanical starters and brakes were the auto industry’s standard by the 1930s. During World War II, he developed […]

Henri Bendel (1868 - 1936)

Businessman. He was America’s foremost clothes designer during his time.  Family links:  Parents:  William Louis Bendel (1837 – 1874)  Mary Plonsky Bendel Falk (1839 – 1915)  Spouses:  Blanche Lehman Bendel (1862 – 1895)*  Abraham Beekman Bastedo (1877 – 1953)*  Siblings:  Samuel Bendel (1864 – 1935)*  Isaac Bendel (1867 – 1952)*  Henri Bendel (1868 – 1936) […]

Santos Benavides (1823 - 1891)

Wealthy Laredo merchant and rancher, he was known as the “Merchant Prince of the Rio Grande.”  Mayor of Laredo, 1856-59; chief justice of Webb County; member of Texas house of representatives (three terms, 1879-84).  It is widely believed that he was promoted to the rank of general by the state of Texas,  for service during […]

Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858 - 1908)

Businessman, US Congressman. The son of financier August Belmont Sr., he was born into a family of wealth and privilege. He attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, graduating in 1880. He served a year as a Midshipman before resigning his commission in 1881. When his father died in 1890, he inherited much […]

August “The Younger” Belmont (1853 - 1924)

Financier, Sportsman. The son of August Belmont, Sr. he was birthed into the wealth of the banking and international political scene that his father had constructed as a Prussian immigrant. An 1874 graduate of Harvard University, he is credited, through his love for sports and being a champion sprinter with inventing spiked track shoes.  Upon […]

August “The Elder” Belmont (1816 - 1890)

Financier. Born in Alzei, Rhensih, Prussia he started his banking career early by working at the entry level for the prominent House of Rothchilds at the tender age of fourteen, working his way up to positions in Frankfort and Naples then becoming their American representative in New York in 1837. His time in America proved […]

Max Bell (1912 - 1972)

Canadian press baron, financier, sportsman. After striking it rich at Leduc strike in the Alberta oil patch, Bell bought several western Canadian newspapers, forming FP Publications. At one time he was the largest shareholder in Canadian Pacific. He had earlier been a major shareholder in the Hudson’s Bay Company and tried to take it over. […]

Sosthenes Behn (1884 - 1957)

Businessman. His first name was Greek for “life strength,” and he was born in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands. He and his brother Hernand was educated at St. Thomas, Ajaccio, Corsica, St. Barbe and Paris, France. His father was Danish and his mother French-Italian. In 1906, Behn and his brother took over a sugar business […]

Julius Beer (1970 - 1970)

Financier.  Proprietor of “The Observer.”  Family links:  Spouse:  Thyrza Beer (____ – 1881)*  Children:  Ada Sophia Beer*  Frederick Beer (____ – 1903)* *Calculated relationship

Geoffrey Beene (1924 - 2004)

Fashion Designer. Born in Haynesville, Louisiana, he was a graduate of Haynesville High School. He entered Tulane University in 1941 in Pre-Med, as was common in his family. In 1945 he decided Medicine was not for him and he moved to New York. He began to study at the Traphagen School of Fashion in New […]

Walter Herschel Beech (1891 - 1950)

Aviation Pioneer. He began his career in aviation by building a glider of his own design at age 14. By 1932 he co-founded Beech Aircraft Company with his wife, Olive Ann. His early Beechcrafts set many distance and speed records. During World War II, Beech turned the entire production of his company to defense, producing […]

Maxwell Wilbur Becton (1970 - 1951)

Businessman. Co-founder of Fortune 500 Company Becton Dickson.  Family links:  Spouse:  Valerie Prentiss Becton (1882 – 1938)

Warren A. Bechtel (1872 - 1933)

Industrialist. Engineer. Founder of the international firm that bears his name.  Family links:  Spouse:  Clara Alice West Bechtel (1873 – 1941)*  Children:  Stephen Davison Bechtel (1900 – 1989)*  Kenneth Karl Bechtel (1904 – 1978)*  Alice Bechtel Eubanks (1912 – 1998)* *Calculated relationship

Stephen Davison Bechtel (1900 - 1989)

Industrialist. Born in Indiana to Warren A. and Clara Alice West Bechtel. Stephen, known lovingly as Steve, was raised in construction camps, his teenage years were spent working with the construction crews. He shipped out to serve his country after his graduation from high school with 19 months in World War I. He was a […]

Carl Bechstein (1826 - 1900)

Entrepreneur. He founded the C. Bechstein Pianoforte Co., considered one of the world’s finest piano manufacturers, in Berlin in 1853. The sonorous yet creamy sound of this company’s instruments influenced composer Claude Debussy, who once enthused,  “All piano music should be written for Bechsteins”,  and over the years they have been favored by such virtuosos […]

Viscount Marcus Samuel Bearsted (1853 - 1927)

British Peer,  Industrialist. Founder of Shell Oil. Born the son of Abigail Moss and Marcus Samuel in London, England. He helped develop oil fields in Sarawak and Egypt and was a founder and Chairman of Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. and started handling consignments of kerosene. In 1892 he began operating tankers sailing to […]

L.L. Bean (1872 - 1967)

Businessman, Mail Order Magnate, Author. He is remembered as the founder of the successful mail order company L.L. Bean. Born Leon Leonwood Bean, one of six boys, he showed an early interest in business by selling steel traps. When he was 12 years old, his parents died only four days apart and he moved to […]

Col James Beauregard “Jim” Beam (1864 - 1947)

Business Magnate, Folk Hero. James Beam turned the family bourbon business into an american industry. Under Jim, the business thrived despite prohibition. Jim left the distilling business to grow citrus in Florida, among other things. When prohibition ended in 1934 Jim was ready to fire up the still. He built and moved to a new […]

John Clifford Baxter (1958 - 2002)

Businessman, Alledged Criminal. Former Vice Chairman of Enron Energy Company. Died from a self inflicted gunshot wound.

John Jacob Bausch (1830 - 1926)

Businessman. He was a co-founder of Bausch And Lomb, Incorperated.

Sam Battistone (1913 - 1992)

Business Magnate. He founder the Sambo’s restaurant chain. The first Sambo’s is still in operation on Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara.  Family links:  Spouse:  Ione Isabelle Jensen Battistone (1914 – 2003)* *Calculated relationship

Thomas John Bata (1914 - 2008)

Entrepreneur,  Philanthropist. He was widely called the “Shoemaker to the World”. He built Bata Shoe Organization into one of the world’s largest family-run businesses and a leading footwear manufacturer and retailer with operations in 50 countries. Born in Praha, Czechoslovakia he was a tenth generation cobbler and apprenticed under his father Tomas, who co-founded the […]

Burton Baskin (1913 - 1967)

Business Magnate. Together with his brother-in-law, Irving Robbins, he founded the Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors Ice Cream chain.  In 2004, Baskin-Robbins served over 10 million customers per week around the world. (bio by: Joe Walker)

William Barret (1786 - 1871)

Businessman. A Tobacco manufacturer, he opened one of the first large tobacco factories in Richmond and quickly amassed a large fortune. One of his slaves, a tobacco worker namded Henry “Box” Brown, gained notoriety in 1849, when he escaped in a box shipped from Richmond to Philadelphia, where he became an abolitionist author and speaker. […]

Paul Julius Baron de Reuter (1816 - 1899)

Journalist. Born in a family of rabbis, he was named Israel Beer Josaphat. He changed his name and became a founder of Reuters, one of the major financial news agencies of the world, which first established a telegraph link between Britain and the European continent through the English Channel. When this link was extended to […]

Barney Isaacs Barnato (1851 - 1970)

Financier and rogue. Born Barnett Isaacs in 1852, he made his first fortune in diamonds in South Africa and returned to England to become king of the market in gold shares (‘kaffirs’). His visiting card bore the inscription ‘I’ll stand you a drink but I won’t lend you a fiver’. Took to drink and commited […]

Francis Jones Barnard (1829 - 1889)

Founder of British Columbia-Barnard Express (BX) stagecoach company serving the Cariboo gold fields; father of Sir Frank S. Barnard MP for Yale, B.C. (1879-1886).  Family links:  Spouse:  Ellen Stillman Barnard (1825 – 1889)*  Children:  Francis Stillman Barnard (1856 – 1936)*  George Henry Barnard (1868 – 1954)* *Calculated relationship

David Barclay (1970 - 1970)

Quaker merchant, son of Robert Barclay the ‘apologist’ (as mentioned on his headstone) who wrote an early defence fo the Quaker movement. Began life as a draper and started trading with the West indies and New England. Entered a banking partnership with the Quaker family of Freame, and thus became the founder of Barclays Bank, […]

Ohio Columbus Barber (1841 - 1920)

Businessman. First worked in his father’s Akron, Ohio Match Company. He was such a successful salesman that he later founded Barberton, Ohio and moved the family business there, where he built a lavish mansion. The house is gone today but the gothic-style horse stables still stand. O.C. would become known as “the Match King of […]