Charles Stewart Rolls (1877 - 1910)

British Automotive Pioneer, Industrialist. Known as the co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited. Born into an aristocratic family, he graduated in Engineering at Cambridge, beginning very young to devote himself to engines design. The meeting with Henry Royce, which occurred in 1904 at the Automobile Club of London, was decisive for the creation of the prestigious english […]

Henry Huttleston Rogers (1840 - 1909)

Businessman and philanthropist.  He amassed a fortune so large he was listed in a 1996 study as one of the 25 most wealthy individuals in US history.  He was a major holder in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust, and had numerous investments of his own in copper, steel, natural gas, coal, and railroads.  Rogers […]

Alvah Curtis Roebuck (1864 - 1948)

Businessman. Co-founder of Sears and Roebuck Company. Born in Lafayette, Indiana, he began working as a self-taught watchmaker in Hammond Indiana at the age of 22. He answered a classified ad for a watchmaker placed by Richard W. Sears in the Chicago Daily News in 1887. Their association grew into one of the world’s best […]

Jerome Irving Rodale (1898 - 1971)

Businessman/Publisher. Known by his friends simply as J.I., he was the founder of Rodale Press and one of the world’s foremost advocates of organic farming and natural food. While his ideas were first met with criticism from the scientific and medical communities, he eventually became recognized as an innovative leader by his critics. Among the […]

William Rockefeller (1841 - 1922)

Industrialist. The younger brother of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, he served as President of Standard Oil until its antitrust dissolution in 1911.  Family links:  Parents:  William Avery Rockefeller (1810 – 1906)  Eliza Davison Rockefeller (1813 – 1889)  Spouse:  Almira Geraldine Goodsell Rockefeller (1844 – 1920)  Children:  Emma Rockefeller McAlpin (1868 – 1934)*  William Goodsell […]

John D. Rockefeller, III (1906 - 1978)

Financier and Philanthropist.  Born into the wealthy and socially prominent Rockefeller family, he was the eldest son of John Davison Rockefeller Jr and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.  He attended primary education at the Browning School in New York City, and at the Loomis Institute in Windsor, Connecticut.  In 1929, he graduated from Princeton University where he […]

John Davison Rockefeller, Sr (1839 - 1937)

American financier, oil magnate and philanthropist.  Best known as the patriarch of the socially prominent Rockefeller family of New York, founder of the Standard Oil Company and founder of the Rockefeller Foundation.  He was born John Davison Rockefeller on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York, the son of William Avery Rockefeller, a traveling quack […]

Frank DeHass Robison (1970 - 1908)

Major League Baseball Team Owner, Businessman. A pioneer in street railway lines, he was the owner of the Cleveland Spiders baseball team.  In 1877, he and his father-in-law organized Hathaway & Robison to build and operate street railway systems.  The company established street railway systems throughout the United States and Canada.  Robison organized the Cleveland […]

Joseph Winchester Robinson (1846 - 1891)

Businessman, Founder.  In 1882, Robinson left Waltham, Massachusetts, where he had operated a dry goods business, for California, intending to develop orange groves in Riverside. Upon arrival he took an interest in the retail business in the small community of Los Angeles and sensing that the area would grow, and that the rough-and-tumble general stores […]

Harry Winchester Robinson (1878 - 1932)

Businessman. The heir to the Robinsons Department Store empire, and son of Founder, John W. Robinson, he built the business into one of Los Angeles’ most successful department stores. Robinsons merged with the May Company in 1993, and today, Robinsons-May has 55 stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. (bio by: Scott G)  Family links: […]

George Rowan Robinson (1866 - 1929)

Business Magnate. Mr. Robinson was one of the founders of the Ralston Purina Company. He was also a former manager of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He got his start into the business world at the age of fourteen when he obtained employment with the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Four years later, he spent his summer […]

Irv Robbins (1917 - 2008)

Entrepreneur. With Burt Baskin he co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain in 1945.  They also pioneered in franchising their stores. Famed for its “31 flavors” concept, Baskin-Robbins now has over 5500 outlets around the world.  Robbins was born in Winnepeg,  Manitoba,  Canada,  and raised in Washington state. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)  Family links:  Spouse:  Irma […]

Edward Payson Ripley (1845 - 1920)

Business Magnate. First President of the reorganized Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad in 1895. The plaque on the door of the mausoleum bears the quote, “This is the sunset glow. The shadows will soon begin to lengthen. But if I have died to win the approbation of my contemporaries and to be of benefit […]

John Ringling (1866 - 1936)

Entertainer. Born Johann Nicholas Rüngeling, one of seven sons of German immigrant and harness maker, August Rüngeling, in McGregor, Iowa. After moving to Baraboo, Wisconsin, the brothers Ringling created and performed a vaudeville-type show in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, on November 27, 1882. John played the clown. Two years later, the Ringling Brothers were able to open […]

Charles Ringling (1863 - 1926)

Entertainer. Born Charles Edward Rüngeling, one of seven sons of German immigrant and harness maker, August Rüngeling. After moving to Baraboo, Wisconsin the brothers Ringling created and performed a vaudeville-type show in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, on November 27, 1882. Two years later, the Ringling Brothers were able to open their first circus. By 1887, the growing […]

George Washington Riggs (1813 - 1881)

Businessman,  Banker.  He was born in Georgetown, then a city in the District of Columbia, and brought up in Baltimore. In 1840 Riggs began a banking partnership with Thomas W. Corcoran. The bank was immediately successful and got a major boost in 1844, when the U.S. government assigned Corcoran & Riggs to be the only […]

Dean Richmond (1804 - 1866)

Railroad Magnate. Born in Barnard, Vermont, he was noted as one of the most influential individuals of New York’s railroad service. In 1842, He established a commission transportation business  and became a director in the Utica and Buffalo Railroad Company. With the establishment of the New York Central Railroad Company in 1853, he was chosen […]

Charles L. Richardson (1970 - 1862)

British merchant. Namesake of “The Richardson Affair,” known to the Japanese as the “Namamugi Jiken,” the “Namamugi Incident.” Following Commodore Matthew Perry’s forced treaty with the Japanese government, the Dutch, Russians and British quickly established similar agreements. The Japanese governing elite saw the incursion of western traders as inevitable but not entirely welcome. There was […]

Morris Rich (1847 - 1928)

Businessman. Along with his brother Emanuel, founded Rich’s Department Stores, which is one of the largest retail chains in the South.  (bio by: Evening Blues)  Family links:  Parents:  Joseph Rich (1809 – 1885)  Rose Teitelbaum Rich (1817 – 1875)  Spouse:  Maud Goldberg Rich (1857 – 1947)*  Children:  Rosalind Rich Rosenheim (1880 – 1961)*  Siblings:  Daniel […]

Louis Rich (1896 - 1970)

Businessman. He immigrated to America from Russia, arriving as a steerage passenger in 1906. Working as a Kosher butcher, he saved enough money to gradually bring his family to America, and open his own business. In 1921, he bought a truck and started the Rock Island Produce Company, in Rock Island, Illinois. His business sold […]

Emanuel Rich (1849 - 1897)

Businessman. With his brother Morris, he co-founded Rich’s Department Stores, one of the largest retail chains in the South.  Family links:  Parents:  Joseph Rich (1809 – 1885)  Rose Teitelbaum Rich (1817 – 1875)  Spouse:  Bertha Sarturius Rich (1859 – 1923)*  Children:  Walter H. Rich (1880 – 1947)*  Rubye Rich Strauss (1882 – 1955)*  Siblings:  Daniel […]

Cecil John Rhodes (1853 - 1902)

Imperialist, Entrepreneur, Colonialist. Namesake of the Rhodes Scholarship and the country of Rhodesia. Founder of the De Beers diamond mining company.

Richard Samuel Reynolds, Jr (1908 - 1980)

Businessman. President of the Reynolds Metals Co., (1948-1963) and was Chairman of the Board (1963- 1980). The company was originally founded by his father in 1928 and was grandnephew of the Reynolds who founded the tobacco company. He helped launch a Wall Street brokerage firm that went onto become part of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. […]

Abelard Reynolds (1785 - 1878)

Business magnate. In 1828, he built the Reynolds Arcade on Main Street in Rochester, New York, the first multi-level shopping center in America. The Western Union Telegraph Company was founded in the Reynolds Arcade and continued to maintain its central offices there for decades. He moved to Rochester from Red Hook NY around 1812 and […]

Charles Revson (1906 - 1975)

Businessman. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was a pioneering cosmetics industry executive who created and managed Revlon. He began working for the Elka Cosmetic Company when decided to go into business for himself. He started the Revlon Cosmetics Company which specialized in a line of nail polishes, lipsticks, marketed through beauty salons and later at […]

Marcel Renault (1970 - 1903)

Pioneer Industrialist,  Auto Racer.  With his brother Louis he founded the Renault company of automakers in 1899 and drove their cars in some of the world’s earliest sponsored races.  He was killed in a crash on a run from Paris to Madrid. Louis Renault is buried in Herqueville in Normandy. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)

Eliphalet Remington, II (1793 - 1861)

Weapons Inventor, Businessman. A trained blacksmith, at age 23 he invented and hand produced a hunting rifle that became so popular that he founded the “E. Remington and Sons” firearms manufacturing company. Later changed to “Remington Arms”, the rifles they produced became iconic in the American West, and are still highly sought today.  Family links: […]

John Reisenweber (1851 - 1931)

Restaurateur. He expanded his father’s modest 1856 tavern at the southwest corner of 8th Avenue and 58th Street in New York City into a nationally known establishment having 12 dining rooms and over 1,000 employees. According to his New York Times obituary, Reisenweber’s restaurant is credited as the birthplace of the modern cabaret, and, after […]

James Douglas Reid (1819 - 1901)

Business magnate. Although not the inventor, he was known as the “Father of the Telegraph,” being the first superintendent of the process in the U.S. and Europe, and publishing the first journals and history of the telegraph. He also built and ran several early telegraph lines, before the consolidation into Western Union by Hiram Sibley […]

Harry Burnett “H.B.” Reese, Sr (1879 - 1956)

Businessman. He was the founder of the “H.B. Reese Candy Company”, whose most famous product eventually became the “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup”. Entering candy manufacturing business in Hershey, Pennsylvania around 1917, by the mid-1920s he started to make an item called “peanut butter cups”. Due to sugar shortages during World War II he dropped other […]