Benjamin F. Fairless*

Benjamin Fairless was born in 1890 in Pigeon Run, Ohio, and was one of four children. His father was a coal miner and his mother was a miner's daughter.

Fairless went to work as a farmhand at the age of 14. After school, he cared for the horses, did the plowing, and other chores as needed. He received $9 a month and meals in this position. Starting at age 17, he earned $48 a month as a teacher in a one-room country school where he taught for three years.

He played minor league baseball in the summer months to save enough money for tuition at Ohio Northern University, where he earned a B.S. in civil engineering. He was a railroad surveyor for a year and, in 1914, took his first job in the steel industry as a transit man for the Central Steel Corp. In seven years, he became a vice president, and when Central merged with Republic Steel, he was named executive vice president.

In 1935, he joined U.S. Steel as president and chairman of the board of the parent company. After his retirement, he chaired President Dwight Eisenhower's Committee of Citizen Advisors in reviewing foreign aid policy.