Mellon, Andrew

Mellon, Andrew (William) (1855–1937) financier, public official, philanthropist; born in Pittsburgh, Pa. Taking over his father's banking house in 1882, he built a business empire by shrewdly anticipating growth industries. He helped found the Union Trust Company of Pittsburgh (1898), the Gulf Oil Corporation (1895), the Pittsburgh Coal Company (1899), the Aluminum Company of America, and the company that built the Panama Canal locks. A conservative Republican, as secretary of the treasury under presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover (1921–32), he stressed policies aimed at reducing the national debt. He drew fire by cutting income tax rates substantially as part of a tax-revision program to aid business and the wealthy. He forged agreements with European governments for repayment of their World War I debts and served as ambassador to Britain (1932–33). In 1913 he established the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research and he endowed the National Gallery of Art (1937).

---

Mellon, Andrew (1855–1937)

financier and public official; left large sums for research and art. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1743]

See : Philanthropy