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    Ransom E. Olds: America's First Automotive Pioneer

    Ransom E. Olds: America's First Automotive Pioneer

    by Daniel Alef

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    Daniel Alef has written many articles, one law book, one historical anthology, Centennial Stories, and authored the award-winning historical novel, Pale Truth (MaxIt Publishing, 2000). Foreword Magazine named Pale Truth book of the year for general fiction in 2001 and the novel received many outstanding reviews including ones from Publishers Weekly and the American Library Association's Booklist. A sequel to Pale Truth, currently entitled Measured Swords, has just been completed. Titans of Fortune, biographical profiles of America's great moguls, men and women who had a profound impact on America and the World, began in April 2003. He is also a contributor to the recently released reference work: Gender and Women's Leadership pubished by Sage Publishing. Mr. Alef's experience as a lawyer, CEO of a public company, a rancher, and author, combined with his academic background-UCLA (B.S.), UCLA Law School (J.D.), the London School of Economics and Political Science (LL.M.), and Cambridge University (post-graduate studies)-gave him the perception to analyze the powerful titans and their achievements, and to place their lives and triumphs in a larger perspective. The Titans of Fortune series of articles appeared in several newspapers including the Lee Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, and became a weekly column in the Santa Barbara News Press. Mr. Alef also had a one-hour weekly radio show based on the Titans of Fortune column. He has appeared as a guest speaker and lecturer at various university, Rotary, and Kiwanis clubs, public libraries including San Francisco and Chicago, cruise ships, and at numerous historical societies across the nation. Mr. Alef serves on the Board of Trustees of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum and on the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Activities League. He is a black belt in judo and one of the head instructors of the University of California at Santa Barbara Judo Club. He currently lives with his family in Santa Barbara.

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    Reo, the three-letter word meaning "early classic car" in crossword puzzles, is named for its inventor, Ransom E. Olds. Most of us are more familiar with another car bearing his name--Oldsmobile. More than 35 million Oldsmobiles have been sold since Olds produced his first car, but on April 29, 2004, the last Oldsmobile rolled off the assembly line in Detroit. General Motors had ended the line, blaming the decision on poor brand identification.
    Olds is regarded as the first of the great American automobile pioneers. He not only sold the first car manufactured in America, his company was the first of the great automobile enterprises, a model and training ground for the Dodge brothers, Henry Ford, Henry Leland (founder of Cadillac and Lincoln), and other automotive trailblazers.
    Olds was born in Geneva, Ohio, in 1864, the second child born to Pliny and Sarah Olds. Pliny was a blacksmith who ran a machine shop. Olds attended schools in Cleveland until 1880, when the family moved to Lansing, Michigan, where Pliny and Olds' older brother opened the Olds & Son machine shop on River Street.

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    Biographical profile of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. America's first billionaire. Rockefeller established Standard Oil and built it into an oil empire that controlled the oil industry. Standard Oil was the nation's most powerful trust, a progenitor of other major monopolistic trusts and one that would help launch Teddy Roosevelt's attack on the "malefactors of great wealth." In the process of amassing great wealth, Rockefeller's reputation developed more facets than a diamond. Few could agree on whether he was, as many called him, "the world's most hated man," or as the New York Times labeled him: "the world's greatest giver." Public opinion ran the gamut. He contributed more than $531 million to charities and educational institutions and founded the University of Chicago. Ida M. Tarbell vilified him in a series of articles and books. And the Supreme Court ordered Standard to dissolve due to restraint of trade. The dissolution resulted in 34 companies including Exxon, Mobil, Conoco, Chevron, Amoco, Sohio, Socony, Atlantic, Richfield, Esso, Marathon and 23 other smaller entities. The New York Times called Rockefeller's story the "outstanding example of the romance of American business, the most dramatic illustration of the opportunity for amassing wealth which was a part of the era of rugged individualism." Award-winning author Daniel Alef tells his fascinating story and the conundrums faced in appraising his legacy. [5,380-word Titans of Fortune article]

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