38 Facts About Paul Mellon

1.

Paul Mellon is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

2.

Paul Mellon 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.

3.

Paul Mellon died at his home, Oak Spring, in Upperville, Virginia, on February 1,1999.

4.

Paul Mellon was the son of Andrew W Mellon, US Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932, and Nora McMullen of Hertfordshire, England and brother of Ailsa Mellon-Bruce.

5.

Paul Mellon graduated from The Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1925, where he wrote for the literary magazine.

6.

Paul Mellon then went on to graduate from Yale College and the University of Cambridge.

7.

Paul Mellon 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 Science Center to Choate, two residential colleges, and the Yale Center for British Art.

8.

Paul Mellon was a major benefactor to Clare College's Forbes-Mellon Library, opened in 1986.

9.

Paul Mellon returned to Pittsburgh, to work for Paul Mellon Bank and other businesses for six months.

10.

Paul Mellon enrolled at St John's College in Annapolis, Maryland in 1940 but six months later joined the United States Army, asking to join the cavalry.

11.

Paul Mellon served with the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services in Europe.

12.

Paul Mellon rose to the rank of major and was the recipient of four battle stars in the European Theatre of Operations.

13.

Paul Mellon was a descendant of the Lambert family who formulated and marketed Listerine and an heiress to the Warner-Lambert corporate fortune.

14.

Bunny Paul Mellon was an avid horticulturist and gardener, whose fondness for French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting, as well as American art, Paul Mellon came to share.

15.

Four years later Paul Mellon presented both the building by John Russell Pope and his father's collection of 115 paintings to the nation.

16.

Paul Mellon served on the museum's board for more than four decades: as trustee, as president, as board chair, and as honorary trustee.

17.

In 1936, Paul Mellon purchased his first British painting, Pumpkin with a Stable-lad by George Stubbs, who became a lifetime favorite of Paul Mellon's.

18.

Paul Mellon granted his extensive collection of British art, rare books, and related materials to Yale University in the 1960s, along with the funding to create an appropriate museum to house it.

19.

Paul Mellon characteristically insisted that it not be named in honor of him, but rather would be called the Yale Center for British Art, to encourage others to support it as well.

20.

Paul Mellon provided extensive endowment support to fund not only operations but an ongoing program of acquisitions, and he made a generous bequest to the Center at the time of his death.

21.

Paul Mellon provided important leadership gifts to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, as well as Choate Rosemary Hall.

22.

Paul Mellon owned many thoroughbred horses under his Rokeby Stables, including Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero.

23.

Paul Mellon owned three European champions, Mill Reef { Forrest Flower } and Gold and Ivory.

24.

Paul Mellon won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder in 1971 and again in 1986.

25.

Paul Mellon established the Old Dominion Foundation in 1941 and the Bollingen Foundation in 1945, both to support advancement and learning of the humanities and liberal education.

26.

Beyond these capital gifts, Paul Mellon endowed the deanships of each of Yale's 12 residential colleges.

27.

Paul Mellon created the Mellon Senior Forum program, which provides a weekly meal for seniors in each of the residential colleges where they can share progress on their senior essays and projects with one another.

28.

Paul Mellon provided the funding necessary to create the Directed Studies program of intense freshman-year focus on the humanities.

29.

Paul Mellon supported significantly the undergraduate theater studies program, and endowed named professorships in schools throughout the University, particularly in the humanities.

30.

Paul Mellon was highly supportive of causes that advanced the preservation of horses, including the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.

31.

Paul Mellon donated the $1 million bonus that Sea Hero won in the Chrysler Triple Crown Challenge to the United States Jockey Club's Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.

32.

In 1999, Paul Mellon bequeathed $8 million to the University of Cambridge in England for the Fitzwilliam Museum.

33.

Paul Mellon helped to buy the 28,625-acre Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the 1,500-acre Sky Meadows State Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where he used to go to look at the stars.

34.

Paul Mellon was a major benefactor of Clare College and Clare Hall, both in Cambridge, England.

35.

The Paul Mellon Fellowship is another example of his generosity, permitting the reciprocal exchange of two students from Yale and two from Clare College for graduate study in each other's institutions.

36.

Paul Mellon was a trustee of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and one of the only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the Hall of Fame.

37.

Paul Mellon was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and the English Jockey Club Hall of Fame.

38.

In 1978, Mellon received the S Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.