- Richard B. Mellon
Richard Beatty Mellon (
March 19 ,1858 –December 1933), sometimes R.B., was a banker, industrialist, and philanthropist from Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania .He and his brother,
Andrew W. Mellon , another son of JudgeThomas Mellon , were frequent business partners. Richard served under Andrew atMellon Bank , and assumed its presidency in 1921 when Andrew was appointed Treasury Secretary. They also made several philanthropic gifts jointly, notably the 1913 establishment of theMellon Institute of Industrial Research in memory of their father, now a part ofCarnegie Mellon University .R.B. served from 1899–1910 as president of the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, renamed the Aluminum Company of America (
Alcoa ) in 1907, and was heavily invested in the Pittsburgh Coal Company, today part ofCONSOL Energy , where he infamously clashed withJohn L. Lewis and theUnited Mine Workers .Ingham, John N. " [http://books.google.com/books?id=Suu9yUKdA8IC&pg=PA923&lpg=PA923&dq=mellon+%22jennie+taylor+king%22+-library&source=web&ots=vGWsXNROE_&sig=FEktx3G7hWm0h1qOT3SMFHCmLWg Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders] ". Greenwood Press, Westport, 1983. ISBN 0313239088.] Later, he was instrumental in forming Mellbank Corporation, a bank holding company, which helped the affiliated banks weather theGreat Depression . [ [http://www.mellon.com/aboutmellon/history.html "Mellon: Our History"] at http://www.mellon.com/aboutmellon/history.html, accessed21 May 2007 .]In 1918, R.B. Mellon organized the Citizens' Committee on City Plan, which sought to improve Pittsburgh through better urban planning and zoning. In honor of his civic efforts, the
Air and Waste Management Association recognizes individuals who have made administrative, legislative, and judicial contributions to the field of pollution abatement with the Richard Beatty Mellon Award.Mellon's philanthropic gifts were primarily church-oriented. In 1926 he established a $15 million
pension fund for Presbyterian ministers. He and his wife Jennie Taylor King were the major donors to the Cathedral of Hope, the new home for the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, which they and their parents had attended. He died before the new building was completed, however, in December 1933. The $13.3 million in taxes paid on his estate enabled the state to meet its payroll. [Beers, Paul B. "Pennsylvania Politics Today and Yesterday: The Tolerable Accommodation". The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, 1980. p.118. ISBN 0271002387.]His children
Sarah Mellon and her younger brotherRichard King Mellon were heirs to the Mellon fortune, alongside their cousinsPaul Mellon andAilsa Mellon-Bruce .References
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