Arthur Samuel Henry Fleming was born on 11 May 1856 in the Town of Milton, Trafalgar Township, Canada West. He died on August 11, 1940, at his home in South Pasadena, California, United States of America. "Samuel" was his father's name and appears only on the Birth Registry. He was a successful Canadian-American lumber operator in the western United States of America around the turn of the 20th century and is best known as a

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

who, with his daughter, gave more than $5,000,000 to the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

(Caltech). Fleming House at Caltech is named in his honor. Fleming also funded the construction of a

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

memorial in

Compiègne Compiègne (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department of northern France. It is located on the river Oise (river), Oise, and its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois'' (). Administration Compiègne is t ...

to house the railroad car in which the

1918 Armistice with Germany The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed in a railroad car, in the Compiègne Forest near the town of Compiègne, that ended fighting on land, at sea, and in the air in World War I between the Entente and their las ...

was signed. The railcar was later seized by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in 1940. Fleming held many positions of authority. During

he served as chief of the state councils section of the

Council of National Defense The Council of National Defense was a United States organization formed during World War I to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort, including the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial s ...

. In the 1920s, he was president of the

Sugar Pine Lumber Company The Sugar Pine Lumber Company was an early 20th century logging operation and railroad in the Sierra Nevada. Unable to secure water rights to build a log flume, the company operated the “crookedest railroad ever built." They later develope ...

, and the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company; a director of

Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (SCE), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electric utility company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximate ...

; and vice-president of the

Minarets and Western Railroad The Minarets and Western Railway was a Class II common carrier that operated in Fresno County, California, from 1921 to 1933. The railway was owned by the Sugar Pine Lumber Company and was built the same year the lumber company was incorporated ...

References

1856 births 1940 deaths Place of birth missing Businesspeople from Pasadena, California Philanthropists from California {{philanthropist-stub

Further reading

References