Roswell Miller III was born on December 14, 1922, in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of Roswell Miller Jr. and Margaret (Carnegie) Miller and had three siblings. Miller received his BA from Princeton University in 1944 and subsequently received a PhD in geology. During World War II, he served with the US Geological Survey. He married Cordelia Brinton on April 28, 1945, in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the couple had four children, two sons and two daughters. In 1955, he became president of Sunset Plastics, Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah, and lived there until 1970, when he moved to Essex. Sadly, on April 5, 1975, at the age of 52, Roswell Miller III passed away at the Shoreline Clinic in Centerbrook, Essex, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States, as reported by the Hartford Courant.
His Grandfather, Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was born on 25 November 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland, to Margaret Morrison Carnegie and William Carnegie. He was educated at the Free School in Dunfermline and was heavily influenced by his maternal uncle, the Scottish political leader George Lauder, Sr. When he was twelve, his father’s business declined and his family decided to borrow money from George Lauder, Sr. and move to Allegheny, Pennsylvania in the United States. Carnegie’s first job in the US was as a bobbin boy at the Scottish-owned cotton mill, Anchor Cotton Mills.
Starting as a telegraph messenger boy, he eventually worked his way up to the position of Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s Western Division. During his time with the railroad, he learned a great deal about management and cost control, which helped him in his later endeavors. Additionally, he used his connections with the President of the railroad to make investments, which further contributed to his wealth.
In the 1860s, Andrew Carnegie began investing in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges, and oil derricks, accumulating wealth as a bond salesman and raising money for American enterprise in Europe. He went on to build the renowned Carnegie Steel Company in Pittsburgh, which he sold to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $303,450,000 (equal to more than $9 billion dollars today). This formed the basis of the U.S. Steel Corporation and solidified Carnegie’s place as one of the wealthiest Americans, surpassing John D. Rockefeller for several years.
Carnegie dedicated the rest of his life to philanthropy, investing in the construction of local libraries, the pursuit of world peace, educational institutions, and scientific research. Examples of his generosity include Carnegie Hall in New York City, Carnegie Mellon University, the Peace Palace in the Netherlands, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Carnegie Institution for Science, the Carnegie Hero Fund, and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Carnegie passed away on August 11, 1919, from bronchial pneumonia at his Shadow Brook estate in Lenox, Massachusetts. He was laid to rest in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, New York, near union organizer Samuel Gompers, in the Arcadia Hebron plot at Summit Avenue and Dingle Road.