John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American
business magnate and philanthropist. He was a co-founder of the
Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the
petroleum industry, and along with other key contemporary industrialists such as
Andrew Carnegie, defined the structure of modern
philanthropy. In 1870, he founded Standard Oil Company and actively ran it until he officially retired in 1897.