Allen E. Paulson

Infobox Person
name = Allen E. Paulson
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1922|4|22
birth_place = Clinton, Iowa, U.S.
death_date = death date|2000|7|19
death_place = La Jolla, California, U.S.
occupation = Businessman:
Aircraft manufacturing
Racehorse owner/breeder
Philanthropist

Allen Eugene Paulson (April 22, 1922 - July 19, 2000) was an American businessman, philanthropist, thoroughbred racehorse breeder and owner, and a self-made multi-millionaire.

Business career in aviation

Born in Clinton, Iowa, Allen E. Paulson was on his own at age 13, supporting himself selling newspapers and doing janitorial work at cal hotel until he moved to California in 1937. There, he worked on a dairy farm to pay his way through school. After finishing high school, he moved to West Virginia where he worked at two jobs while studying engineering. He then went to work for Trans World Airlines as an aircraft mechanic and went on to run his own aviation businesses, the best known of which is Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, a business-jet manufacturer created through the 1978 acquisition of a Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation subsidiary that he merged with two other small-aircraft manufacturers to form his Gulfstream company headquartered in Savannah, Georgia. In 1985, Paulson sold the company to the Chrysler Corporation and although he continued to run it for the new owners, a few years later he teamed up with Ted Forstmann and his associates to buy the company back.

In 1990, Paulson and a Gulfstream flight crew set 35 international records for around-the-world flight in a Gulfstream IV aircraft. In 1987 he won the Harmon Trophy as the world's outstanding aviator and in 1992 was inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame. Allen E. Paulson received numerous other awards during his lifetime including five honorary doctorates and the Award for Meritorious Service to Aviation by the National Business Aviation Association, Inc.

In the early 1990s, Paulson bought many automotive dealerships in Beverly Hills, California, where he resided. He bought the Ford, Cadillac, Lincoln-Mercury and Rolls-Royce franchises in the area and opened the Lexus dealer in Beverly Hills, which were managed by his three sons. Since then, the Rolls-Royce and Lexus dealerships have been sold, and the other dealers closed.

Thoroughbred horse racing

A lover of horses and the sport of thoroughbred horse racing, Paulson owned Brookside Farms in Versailles, Kentucky and was a significant force in racing in the United States and in France. In partnership with Sheikh Mohammed, he owned Arazi, the 1991 European Horse of the Year. His most famous American horse was Cigar, a darling of race fans and the media alike who captured the Breeders' Cup Classic, the first Dubai World Cup, and was voted Horse of the Year in 1995 and 1996 while winning a record 16 straight races. Voted the American Eclipse Award for Outstanding Owner three times (1993, 1995, 1996), and the 1993 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder, Paulson owned more than 115 winners of graded stakes races and earned more Breeders' Cup purse money than any other stable owner. One of these winners was the great mare, Azeri, though he did not live to see her compete.

Philanthropy

A supporter of the Georgia Southern University, his company created the "Gulfstream Scholarships" in engineering technology and as a major benefactor, the University named the "Allen E. Paulson College of Science and Technology" in his honor as well as the Allen E. Paulson Stadium.

Allen E. Paulson died in 2000 in hospital near La Jolla, California from cancer at age 78. He is interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Awards

*Society of Experimental Test Pilots James H. Doolittle Award, 1982

External links

* [http://athletics.georgiasouthern.edu/paulson.html Allen E. Paulson Stadium at Georgia Southern University]
* [http://cost.georgiasouthern.edu/history/ Allen E. Paulson College of Science and Technology at Georgia Southern University]