Paul Mellon
Paul Mellon (June 11, 1907 – February 1, 1999) was an American philanthropist and an owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses.[1] He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He was co-heir to one of America's greatest business fortunes, derived from the Mellon Bank created by his grandfather Thomas Mellon, his father Andrew W. Mellon, and his father's brother Richard B. Mellon. In 1957, when Fortune prepared its first list of the wealthiest Americans, it estimated that Paul Mellon, his sister Ailsa Mellon Bruce, and his cousins Sarah Mellon and Richard King Mellon, were all among the richest eight people in the United States, with fortunes of between US$400 and 700 million each (around $4,300,000,000 and $7,600,000,000 in today's dollars).
Paul Mellon
June 11, 1907
February 1, 1999 (aged 91)
Businessman
Corporate investor
Racehorse owner/breeder
Philanthropist
Catherine, Timothy
Andrew W. Mellon
Nora McMullen
- Order of the British Empire (K.B.E.) (1974)
- National Medal of Arts (1985)
- National Humanities Medal (1997)
- Thoroughbred horse racing honors:
Exemplar of Racing
Virginia Thoroughbred Association Hall of Fame (1988)
Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder
(1971, 1986)
Keeneland Mark of Distinction (1996)
Virginia Sports Hall of Fame (1999)
English Jockey Club Hall of Fame
Mellon's autobiography, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, was published in 1992. He died at his home, Oak Spring, in Upperville, Virginia, on February 1, 1999.
Paul Mellon was married to Mary Conover Brown from 1935 until her death in 1946. They had two children, Catherine Conover Mellon (first wife of John Warner) and Timothy Mellon. In 1948, Paul Mellon married his second wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon (a.k.a. Bunny) (August 9, 1910–March 17, 2014) who had two children, Stacy Lloyd III and Eliza, Viscountess Moore with her first husband, Mr. Stacy Barcroft Lloyd, Jr. whom she had divorced in 1948.
Early life and education[edit]
Mellon was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 11, 1907, the son of Andrew W. Mellon, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932, and Nora McMullen of Hertford Castle, England and brother of Ailsa Mellon-Bruce. When he was 5 years old his parent divorced. He graduated from The Choate School, now Choate Rosemary Hall, in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1925, where he wrote for the literary magazine. He then went on to graduate from Yale College, where he was a member of the Chi Psi fraternity, Scroll and Key, and served as vice-chairman of the Yale Daily News. He was a great benefactor of his alma maters, donating to the Forbes-Mellon Library at the University of Cambridge, the Mellon Arts Center and the Mellon (now Icahn) Science Center to Choate, two residential colleges at Yale (Ezra Stiles and Morse), and the Yale Center for British Art.
In 1930, he was a founding member, alongside Sir Timothy William Gowers, of the CRABS, the Clare Rugby And Boating Society, the oldest of the collegiate Gentlemen's societies still active. In 1938, he received an Oxbridge MA from Clare College, Cambridge. He was a major benefactor to Clare College's Forbes-Mellon Library, opened in 1986.
After graduating from Yale University, he went to England to study at the University of Cambridge, receiving a BA in 1931, while his father served as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's from 1932 to 1933.
Personal life[edit]
In 1935, he married Mary Conover Brown and the couple, who had two children, Catherine and Timothy, moved to Virginia.
After his wife Mary's death in 1946 from an asthma attack, he married Rachel Lambert Lloyd, known as "Bunny", the former wife of Stacy Barcroft Lloyd Jr. She was a descendant of the Lambert family who formulated and marketed Listerine and an heiress to the Warner-Lambert corporate fortune (Warner-Lambert is now part of Pfizer, following a 2000 merger). Bunny Mellon was an avid horticulturist and gardener, whose fondness for French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting, as well as American art, Mellon came to share.[12] By this marriage, he had two stepchildren: Stacy Lloyd III and Eliza Lambert Lloyd (d. 2008; who married and divorced Viscount Moore).