Richard King Mellon and Adoption

Biography

1899 - 1970

Financier

Financier and banker Richard King Mellon was one of the richest men in the United States in the 1960s. He was the last great leader of the Pittsburgh-based Mellon financial dynasty.

Mellon was born on June 19, 1899 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, into one of America 's great financial families. His grandfather, Thomas Mellon, established the private bank of T. Mellon and Sons in 1869, after his retirement from a long career as a lawyer and judge. The Pittsburgh bank prospered and served as the foundation for the family's vast holdings throughout the nation.

In 1939, at the age of 40, Mellon and his 29-year-old wife, Constance Prosser McCaulley adopted a two-month-old boy.