Biography of President Gerald Ford

Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., July 14, 1913, his name was changed to that of his stepfather’s when Gerald Ford was a toddler.

Raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ford received his BA in 1935 from the University of Michigan, where he stared as a football center.  Declining offers from professional football teams, he earned an LLB from Yale University in 1941.

During World War II he served four years in the navy, first teaching aviators and then working as an aviation operations officer aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Monterey.

In 1948, Ford a Republican, was elected to the US House of Representatives and was continually reelected thereafter, becoming House minority leader in 1965.

President Nixon appointed Ford to the vice presidency after a plea of nolo contendere to income tax evasion forced Vice President Spiro Agnew from that office. The first vice president to take office in the middle of an administration, Ford was sworn in on December 6, 1973.

President Nixon resigned the office of the presidency due to Watergate scandal and in August 9, 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the presidency. Ford granted Nixon a full pardon for any crimes that he might have committed as president.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter the former governor of Georgia defeated Gerald Ford to become president of the United States.

After leaving the presidency, Ford joined many corporate boards gave numerous public addresses, published his autobiography, A Time to Heal (1979) and lived primarily in Palm Springs California. After a series of illness, President Ford died on December 26, 2006.
Biography of President Gerald Ford

Biography of Will Keith Kellogg

Will Keith Kellogg was business manager of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, founder of the Kellogg Company and founder of the W.K Kellogg foundation.

Born on April 7, 1860 to John Preston Kellogg and Ann Janette Stanley Kellogg, he was christened ‘Willie Keith Kellogg’ but he detested his first name, and legally changed it to ‘Will’ in 1898.

Will Kellogg received little formal education, becoming an apprentice broom maker at age 11, and at the age of fourteen Will began working as a salesman for his father’s broom business. He used a horse and buggy to travel from town to town, For longer sale trips Will sometimes took a train.

In April 1880, Will was hired by his brother John Kellogg as his assistant at Battle Creek Sanitarium. In the late 1880s, the brothers established the Sanitas Food Company to market their culinary innovations.

After many experiments, in 1894 Kellogg brothers perfected the process for flaking grains.  It was first served to the patients as the Sanitarium and later sold by the Sanitas Food Company.

In 1906, Will struck off on his own to form the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. Eventually the renamed Kellogg Company became the world’s largest purveyor of ready-to-eat breakfast cereal.

Kellogg grew his business by masterful and audacious advertising and creative promotions. One campaigns urged housewives to wink at their grocer; those brave enough to do so received a free sample of Toasted Corn Flakes.

The company grew to be the largest manufacturer of ready-to-eat cereals in the world. Will Keith Kellogg passed away on October 6, 1951.
Biography of Will Keith Kellogg

Biography of William George Fargo (May 20, 1818 – August 3, 1881)

Fargo was a native of Pompey New York, having been born there in May 20, 1818 the first of a family of twelve children. He was the oldest.

He tried many jobs and successively as postman, grocer, freight agent on the new Auburn and Syracuse Railroad. In 1842 he became a messenger for Pomeroy and Company, the express firm between Albany and Buffalo and in the next year was named their agent in Buffalo.

In 1844 he became an agent for Wells and Company, becoming one of the three owners of the firm. He managed all express operations west of Buffalo, New York.

Wells and Fargo formed American Express in 1850. During that time, many Americans had gone west in search of gold. Wells and Fargo realized that they could make a lot of money by offering banking services to these people.

In March 1852, Wells and Fargo organized a company to deliver mails, packages and paper from the East to San Francisco. From there the shipments would distribute to California mining camps.

The business became so successful that Wells Fargo also entered banking, dropping off packages at mining camps, purchasing gold dust for $15 an ounce, and later selling it to the US mint for $18.

In 1861 William Fargo was elected Mayor of Buffalo on the Democratic ticket.
Biography of William George Fargo (May 20, 1818 – August 3, 1881)

Clarence W. Barron of Dow Jones & Company (1855 - 1928)

Barron was born July 2, 1855, in Boston, and his father was a teamster. He graduated from Boston’s Prescott Grammar English School and Graduate English High School in 1873 and went to work for the Boston Daily News and then the Evening Transcript.

From 1878 to 1887, he was a reporter covering many beats but then began gravitating toward financial reporting.

In 1887, he founded the Boston News Bureau and in 1897 the Philadelphia News Bureau providing financial news to brokers.

In March 1903, after founder Charles Dow Jones died, Barron purchased control of Dow Jones & Company for $130,000.  The Wall Street Journal is the flagship of the company.

At that time the paper’s circulation had already reached 7000; by the end of 1920 it reached 18,750. In 1912, he assumed the title of president and set out to expand the circulation of the newspaper, The Wall Street Journal. Barron introduced new printing equipment, and the news gathering side of the company expanded.

Dow Jones & Company survived and thrived by editorial and technological innovation, enabling it to collect revenue from a variety of customers and advertisers.

Dow Jones remained an influential and prosperous entity during the early years of the twenty-first century. Dow Jones & Company remained in the family until 2007 when Down Jones was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Barron is widely considered the father of American financial journalism.
Clarence W. Barron of Dow Jones & Company (1855 - 1928)