Eli Lilly was an American businessman and philanthropist.
Background
Eli Lilly was born on April 1, 1885, in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, the eldest son of Josiah K. Lilly and Lilly Ridgely. His paternal grandfather, Eli Lilly, founded the pharmaceutical company that bore his name. The family lived in an affluent section of town, the "new north side. " Their cottage at remote Lake Wawasee, in Kosciusko County, provided an idyllic setting and respite from urban life. From his grandfather, young Lilly learned Indian legends and folklore of the region. Excursions on the lake stimulated his interest in native American archaeology. Lilly's childhood was not always pleasant. His father's strong influence left a lasting impression, and Lilly's accomplishments in life were attempts to please the father he idolized and adored. His mother's relationship with her eldest son was less than affectionate. He felt unloved and shifted his affection to an aunt.
Education
After graduating from Shortridge High School in 1904, he entered the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, from which he received a degree in 1907.
Career
Lilly began his career at the family firm, where he was first appointed the head of the newly created Economic Department, established to save money and improve efficiency, in 1907. In 1909, Lilly became superintendent of the manufacturing division. By the beginning of World War I, he was familiar with the views of Frederick W. Taylor, whose book The Principles of Scientific Management, he later declared, had the most profound influence on the company. A bonus system, a guaranteed wage, an improved method for filling gelatin capsules, and the hiring of efficiency experts all represented Lilly's conversion to Taylor's scientific management philosophy.
Following the war, Lilly was promoted to vice-president and was in charge of the manufacturing and scientific divisions. He began straight-line production, utilizing automated conveyor systems. Yet Lilly himself could hardly have anticipated the impact scientific research would have on the company balance sheet and the whole of humanity.
Pharmaceutical research had started in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century. American dependence on European sources of chemicals left many American companies scrambling to find substitutes after June 1914. Sensing their vulnerability, Josiah Lilly organized the Scientific Department to conduct experimental research. He and Eli Lilly hired George Henry Alexander Clowes, a British chemist, as director of biochemical research. They soon made inroads against diabetes. Clowes surmised it was possible to use insulin, a fluid extracted from the pancreas of sheep and cattle, hypodermically to help sufferers of the metabolic disorder digest essential nutrients in food to prevent starvation. Insulin became available for public use in October 1923.
The American Diabetes Association belatedly presented George Clowes the Banting Medal in 1947 for his contributions. As for Lilly, he could boast of an increase in company profits well into the 1920's and basked in his father's praise.
In 1932, Lilly became president of the family firm, a position he held until 1948. The business showed strong sales and hefty profits during the Great Depression. Paradoxically, Lilly's disdain for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal was not evident in the manner in which he managed his labor force. He created jobs for workers in order to avoid layoffs and refused to slash the payroll in light of massive unemployment. His management philosophy paid off handsomely. In sharp contrast to the auto, steel, and coal industries, the company did not experience the labor unrest so prevalent during the period. The economic crises had a minimal impact on the firm's plans for plant expansion. Convinced that the company's future hinged upon scientific research, Lilly planned the construction of facilities adequate to accommodate such an undertaking. The Lilly Research Laboratories was dedicated in 1934.
Following the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor in 1941, Lilly directed his energies toward the war effort. Production of blood plasma was a major undertaking, and by the end of the war, the company accounted for 20 percent of the nation's total output. In addition, its typhus vaccine and the antiseptic Merthiolate helped to combat disease and infection. Lilly also cooperated with Oxford University scientist Howard Florey to produce penicillin in 1941.
On February 8, 1948, Josiah Lilly died; Eli served as chairman and, beginning in 1953, as honorary chairman. As chairman, Lilly's greatest accomplishment was working with Jonas Salk in producing the polio vaccine. He reassumed the chairmanship for three years after his brother Josiah's death in 1966. He became honorary chairman once again in 1969 and never retired officially.
Lilly's interest in archaeology brought him great recognition. In 1930 he began collecting native American artifacts indigenous to Indiana, and he played an important role in the Indiana Historical Society. Lilly's curiosity about Indiana's prehistoric past served as inspiration for his first book, Prehistoric Antiquities of Indiana (1937). The work was, according to his biographer James H. Madison, a significant attempt to develop "a chronological synthesis and taxonomy of prehistoric cultures in Indiana. " His most ambitious writing project, however, was as contributor to and sole financier of the book Walam Olum or Red Score: The Migration Legend of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians (1954), an ethnological study of an indigenous Indiana tribe.
His appreciation of history led to the 1934 purchase and restoration of the William Conner property, an early-nineteenth-century homestead in Noblesville, Indiana, north of Indianapolis. Lilly's project emulated Henry Ford's Greenfield Village and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 's, Williamsburg. Such restorations, he believed, could somehow replace something missing in the modern American character.
As he grew older, Lilly became less involved in company business. He traveled extensively. Stays at Lake Wawasee replenished his spirit and provided a source of solitude from which he renewed his strength. Woodworking and collecting valuable Chinese art also occupied his time, as did community service. Then Lilly began planning for his own death. He bequeathed his Indianapolis home to Indiana University for a presidential residence. Lilly's vast wealth, including company stock, bonds, real estate, and cash, was valued in excess of $165 million. Lilly willed his estate to his favorite institutions and charitable causes. Those receiving special consideration included the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Butler University, Wabash College, the Indiana Historical Society, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and the Lilly Endowment.
Lilly died in Indianapolis.
Achievements
Under his vision and leadership, Eli Lilly and Company grew from a successful, family-owned business into a modern corporation and industry leader. His first important contribution was a plan to produce multiple copies of manufacturing formulas through a blueprinting process, thus facilitating an increase in production. His development of a straight-line production system, which improved the company's manufacturing processes, transformed the company into a major force in the pharmaceutical industry. Under Lilly's leadership the company developed liver extract for the treatment of pernicious anemia in 1930. Lilly's accomplishments as president from 1932 through 1948 were reflected in the increase in aggregate sales from $13 million to $117 million. The company payroll expanded from 1, 700 to 6, 900 during the same period.
Lilly, a progressive Republican, remained active in state and national party politics.
Views
Lilly believed strongly that human beings have the capacity for self-improvement, provided they employ self-analysis. His monetary worth did not exceed his faith in humanity and his conviction that "the improvement of character in the world is the most important thing to accomplish. "
Connections
On August 29, 1907, Lilly married Evelyn Fortune, a childhood sweetheart. They had three children, two of whom died in infancy. The effects of Lilly's self-imposed work load in the 1920's and the failure of the Lillys to have another child led to their divorce in 1926. On November 27, 1927, he married Ruth Helen Allison, who had been his secretary. They had no children. Ruth Lilly died in 1973.
