Mellon family

The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family fortune originated with Mellon Bank, founded 1869. They became principal investors and majority owners of Gulf Oil (founded 1901 becoming Chevron-Texaco in 1985), Alcoa (since 1886), The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (since 1970), Koppers (since 1912), New York Shipbuilding (1899–1968) and Carborundum Corporation, as well as their major financial and ownership influence on Westinghouse, H.J. Heinz, Newsweek, U.S. Steel, Credit Suisse First Boston and General Motors.

The family also founded the National Gallery in both art works and funds, claims one of the longest serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries, and is a patron to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Yale University, the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti, and with art the University of Virginia. Carnegie Mellon University, and its Mellon College of Science, is named in honor of the family, as well as for its founder, Andrew Carnegie, who was a close associate of the Mellons.

The family's founding patriarch was Judge Thomas Mellon (1813–1908), a son of Andrew Mellon and Rececca Wauchob who were Scotch-Irish farmers from Camp Hill Cottage, Lower Castletown, parish of Cappagh, County Tyrone, Ireland and emigrated to what is now the Pittsburgh suburb of north-central Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The family can be divided into four branches:

• Thomas Mellon (1813–1908), Judge and founder of the Mellon Bank who married Sarah Jane Negley of Pittsburgh. As a boy he decided to abandon his parents' farming lifestyle for law and banking in the city after reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography.
  • James Ross Mellon, who married Rachel Larimer
    • William Larimer Mellon, Sr. (1868–1949) who married Mary Hill Taylor and founded the Gulf Oil Corporation
      • Matthew Taylor Mellon (1897–1992)
        • Karl Negley Mellon (1938–1983) committed suicide
          • Christopher Mellon (b. 1958) Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton and Bush Administrations; Former Minority Staff Director of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University; Graduate of Yale Graduate School with an M.A. in International Relations; Private Equity Investor.
          • Matthew Taylor Mellon II (b. 1964) is the Chairman of the Republican Party Finance of New York, and is a Regent Director of Finance for the Republican National Committee. Mr. Mellon has founded or participated in multiple start ups such as Jimmy Choo, Harrys of London, Hanley Mellon, Marquis Jets, Arrival Aviation and Challenge Capital Partners. Mr. Mellon lives in New York with his wife Nicole Hanley Mellon and their son, Force. He also has a daughter, Araminta whom he raises jointly with his former wife Tamara Mellon.
        • James Ross (Jay) Mellon II (b. 1942) successful hunter and author of books about Abraham Lincoln, Slavery in America and his family’s founding patriarch, Thomas Mellon. According to an interview with the Swiss weekly newspaper, "SonntagsZeitung", he travels permanently in order to legally minimize taxes. He is married to Vivian Ruesch, daughter of Hans Ruesch.
      • Rachel Mellon Walton (1899–2006) who married John Walton, Jr.
      • Margaret Mellon Hitchcock (1901–1998) who successively married Alexander Laughlin and Tommy Hitchcock, Jr.
      • William Larimer Mellon, Jr. (1910–1989), founder of the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti
    • S. Lucille Mellon (1887–1968), who successively married Sidney J. Holloway, Alexander Grange, and George S. Hasbrouck
  • Andrew William Mellon (1855–1937), one of the longest serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries in history and also the namesake of Washington, D.C.'s Andrew Mellon Building and Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.
    • Ailsa Mellon Bruce (1901–1969) who married David K. E. Bruce
    • Paul Mellon (1907–1999) who married Rachel Lambert Mellon (1910–2014)
      • Timothy Mellon
      • Catherine Conover Mellon
  • Richard Beatty Mellon (1858–1933), American banker, industrialist and philanthropist
    • Richard King Mellon (1899–1970)
    • Sarah Mellon (1903–1965) who married Alan Scaife
      • Cordelia Scaife May (1928–2005) philanthropist
      • Richard Mellon Scaife (1932–2014) chief sponsor of the Heritage Foundation and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review since 1970.
        • Jennie King Scaife
        • David Negley Scaife
  • Thomas Alexander Mellon