John Olin
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John Merrill Olin (November 10, 1892 – September 8, 1982) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the son of Franklin W. Olin.
Early life and education
Born in Alton, Illinois, Olin graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. degree in chemistry and as a brother of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and was a founding member of the Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity Tau chapter. With major financial contributions to the Olin Business School and the Olin Library at Washington University in St. Louis, both buildings were named after him. In addition, the Olin Library at Cornell University[1] bears his name, as does a classroom building, Olin Hall, at Johns Hopkins University,[2] and Olin-Sang Hall at Brandeis University.
He married twice. By his first wife, the former Adele Levis, a granddaughter of the founder of Illinois Glass Company, he had two daughters, Adele Louise and Georgene. With his second wife, Evelyn Brown, he had one stepdaughter, Evelyn.
Business
Olin started his career in 1913 as a chemical engineer for his father's Western Cartridge Company, a predecessor of Olin Industries, Inc. In 1935, following Western Cartridge's acquisition of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, he was named first vice-president of the merged Winchester-Western and head of the Winchester division. He became president of Olin Industries in 1944 and upon merger of the company with Mathieson Chemical Corporation in 1954 became chairman of the board of the new corporation, named Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation. Subsequently, the name was shortened to Olin Corporation. Olin retired as chairman of the board in 1957 to become chairman of the executive committee, a position he held until he was elected honorary chairman of the board in 1963.
Olin was an inventor or co-inventor of 24 United States patents in the field of arms and ammunition manufacture and design and was responsible for numerous developments in ballistics.
John Merrill Olin died in 1982 at age 89 at his home in East Hampton, New York.
Thoroughbred horse racing
John and Evelyn Olin bred and raced a number of thoroughbred racehorses, notably winning the 1963 Epsom Oaks with the filly Noblesse, and the 1974 Kentucky Derby with the colt Cannonade.
His granddaughter Adele B. Dilschneider is also a Thoroughbred owner and breeder, whose memberships have included the Kentucky Derby Museum, the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, the American Horse Council, the Thoroughbred Club of America, and the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
See also
Bibliography
- Miller, John J. (2005). A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America. New York: Encounter Books. ISBN 978-1594031175.
References...
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The John M. Olin Foundation was a conservative American grant-making foundation established in 1953 by John M. Olin, president of the Olin Industries chemical and munitions manufacturing businesses. Unlike most other foundations, it was charged to spend all of its assets within a generation of Olin's death, for fear of mission drift over time and to preserve donor intent.
It made its last grant in the summer of 2005 and officially disbanded on November 29, 2005. It had disbursed over $370 million in funding, primarily to conservative think tanks, media outlets, and law programs at influential universities. It is most notable for its early support and funding of the law and economics movement and the Federalist Society. "All in all, the Federalist Society has been one of the best investments the foundation ever made," wrote the Foundation to its trustees in 2003.[1]
Mission statement
According to the official website, "the general purpose of the John M. Olin Foundation is to provide support for projects that reflect or are intended to strengthen the economic, political and cultural institutions upon which the American heritage of constitutional government and private enterprise is based. The Foundation also seeks to promote a general understanding of these institutions by encouraging the thoughtful study of the connections between economic and political freedoms, and the cultural heritage that sustains them."[2]
History
From 1958-1966, the foundation was used to launder money for the Central Intelligence Agency, which funded covert anti-communist propaganda.[3] The fund was largely inactive until 1969, when John M. Olin was disturbed by the Willard Straight Hall takeover at his alma mater, Cornell University. At the age of 80, he decided that he must pour his time and resources into preserving the free market system.[4]
The Foundation is most notable for its early support and funding of the law and economics movement,[5] a discipline that applies incentive-based thinking and cost-benefit analysis to the field of legal theory.[citation needed]
The executive director of the Foundation in its early years was conservative activist Michael S. Joyce, who left to head the similar Bradley Foundation.[5] William E. Simon, a leverage buyout pioneer who was United States Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, was president of the Foundation from 1977 until his death in 2000.[6] He frequently discussed the foundation's commitment to supporting the "counter-intelligentsia". Conservative scholar James Piereson was the last executive director[5] and secretary.
The foundation supported conservative thinkers such as Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute; Mac Donald is the John M. Olin Fellow at this New York City–based institution.[7] In 2005, following longstanding plans,[8] the foundation announced its final grants and closed its doors.[5][6] The foundation closed in the same year as the Franklin W. Olin Foundation, which was established by John Olin's father, Franklin W. Olin. The Franklin W. Olin Foundation also shut down for donor intent reasons, but the two foundations were entirely independent and unrelated, except for the family connection of their founders.[9]
According to the Philanthropy Roundtable, the Olin Foundation "dispensed hundreds of millions of dollars to scholars, think tanks, publications, and other organizations" and "shaped the direction and aided the growth of the modern conservative movement that first sprang into visibility in the 1980s."[5] According to the New York Observer, the Foundation distributed "grants to conservative think tanks and intellectuals—the architects of today's sprawling right-wing movement—for a quarter-century."[6]
Notable persons
- James Piereson – past executive director and board member
- Peter M. Flanigan – past director
- Charles F. Knight – past director
- William E. Simon - past president