John Dustin Archbold

John Dustin Archbold (July 26, 1848 – December 5, 1916) was an American businessman and one of the United States' earliest oil refiners. His small oil company was bought out by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. Archbold rose rapidly at Standard Oil, handling many of the complex secret negotiations over the years. When the company was broken up by the Supreme Court in 1911 into 34 smaller operations, Archbold became president of the largest one, Standard Oil of New Jersey. He was involved in a scandalous affair involving monetary gifts to the Republican Party in 1912. He once made a $250,000 donation to the National Kindergarten Association, to whose board of directors his wife was elected in 1911. In 1885, after becoming skeptical of reports of oil discoveries in Oklahoma, he sold-out at a loss, saying "I'll drink every gallon produced west of the Mississippi!" He was a member of the board of trustees of Syracuse University from 1893 until his death in 1916. From 1893 to 1914, he contributed nearly $6,000,000 for eight buildings, including the Carrier Dome.