William Boyce Thompson - History

History

Born in Virginia City, Montana, Thompson was a rare combination of hardheaded realist and dreamer. Born and schooled in the rough mining towns of southwest Montana - but also at Phillips Exeter Academy and the Columbia School of Mines - he built a large fortune purchasing undervalued copper and gold claims through his company Newmont Mining. By the time of his death, Newmont Mining was one of the three largest mining companies in the world after Cecil Rhodes's De Beers and Sir Ernest Oppenheimer's Anglo American plc. He was not only a shrewd man of business but also had great intellectual curiosity, particularly about science. He wished to be a force for good in the world and supported various philanthropies.

Thompson's holdings were scattered from Cobalt Lake, Canada to Peru. They included Inspiration Mine in Arizona and Indian Motorcycle Co. He financed lead, zinc and coal mines, street railways, handled the sensational Midvale Steel financing during the War when the stock rose from 290 to 500. He refinanced American Woolen Co. and Tobacco Products Co., launched Cuban Cane Sugar Co., got control of Pierce Arrow Motor Car Co., organized Submarine Boat Corp. and the Wright-Martin Aeroplane Co. Fat, good-natured, bald, a tireless worker, a devoted family man, Thompson chewed tobacco, underpaid his employees and, as one of the greatest gamblers of his time, discharged them for gambling.

He was a director of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1914 to 1919 and was twice (1916 and 1920) a delegate to the Republican National Convention. In 1912, he built the W. B. Thompson Mansion at Yonkers, New York. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.