Henry Clay Frick – Titan Of Industry, Finance, Philanthropy & The Arts

The billionaire’s impact on the steel industry is matched only by the museums that bear his name

- By Keith Gordon

As the story goes, sitting in his mansion on New York’s Upper East Side, industrialist and entrepreneur Henry Clay Frick scanned the letter which had just been hand-delivered. Sent by his former business partner and friend, and fellow titan of the industrial age, Andrew Carnegie, the correspondence sent to the 69-year-old Frick was one of hindsight and regret with the specific goal of reconciliation. It spoke of the chance to make amends with one another before they reached the end of their lives. It was genuine, sincere and a legitimate attempt to end the enmities that had existed between these two giants for years.

And Frick wasn’t interested. He was at the twilight of his life, and he could look back with enormous satisfaction on his career and empire. While Carnegie had been an important ally, Frick had proved the more courageous of the two, and, some could argue, the better man of business. Despite his relatively humble origins, and dropping out of college, he became a millionaire by the age of 30. According to Forbes, in 1918, the year before he died, his net worth was equivalent to about $4 billion (in today’s dollars). His impact on the birth and growth of the modern American industrial complex cannot be understated.