William Larimer Mellon Sr.

William Larimer Mellon Sr. was an American businessman who helped found the Gulf Oil Corporation in January 1907. Under his direction the new company built a pipeline running from Oklahoma to Port Arthur, Texas and began shipping crude oil by September of that year, laying the groundwork for Gulf Oil's growth into one of the largest oil companies in the United States. Mellon later turned to Republican Party politics, serving as chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party from 1926 to 1928, and after retiring from Gulf Oil in 1948 he made a six million dollar gift in 1949 to establish a graduate school of business at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.