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Description
John D. Rockefeller. The veteran founder of one of the greatest business enterprises ever created by the brain of man, and possibly the most remarkable figure the business world has yet produced is still an habitué of the golf links at the age of 91. Smiling, and with a twinkle, he remarks on the various strokes of his consistently good game. "I play golf," he explained, "because it bans conceit." And John D. Rockefeller's innate, unassumed modesty and unobtrusiveness are striking. His success he attributes to others and their co-operation while he insists on minimizing his own achievements. Phenomenal financial success made Rockefeller the world's first billionaire, and with his affluence and a universal sympathy he became the pioneer of philanthropy whose gifts, the greatest group in history for the well-being of mankind, have totaled far more than a billion dollars. Born in 1839, at Richford, New York, his education at various places ended in Cleveland when at 16 he found work as an office boy and assistant bookkeeper at a salary of $3.50 a week. He advanced, and the fourth year asked $800.00 salary. Offered $700.00, he resigned and began a produce business whose volume amounted to $500,000 the first year. At 21 he became interested in oil, and at 25 he was well founded in the business. The combination idea came, and company after company was added to Standard Oil. Founded in 1870, it became, within ten years, the most important factor in the petroleum industry. Earnings were so vast that figures seemed fantastic, for oil became the giant of our national products. Production in 1930 was at the rate of 3,200,000 barrels a day in the United States. Rockefeller retired from business in 1911, and today has but 15 per cent interest in the Standard Oil Companies.
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