Background
He was born on November 12, 1886 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Joseph Newton Pew, founder of the Sun Oil Company, and of Mary Catherine Anderson.
He was born on November 12, 1886 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Joseph Newton Pew, founder of the Sun Oil Company, and of Mary Catherine Anderson.
He attended Shadyside Academy in Pittsburgh and the Haverford School. He graduated in 1908 from Cornell University with a degree in mechanical engineering.
After graduation Pew entered the family business. Until 1914 he worked in the oil fields of Illinois, West Virginia, and Venezuela. He had a major role in the development, in 1916 and after, of the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Chester, Pennsylvania, a wholly owned but independently managed subsidiary of Sun Oil Company established largely to build oil tankers (and thus lower transportation costs).
In 1931, when it was decided to build a pipeline to move gasoline from the Sun Oil refinery at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, to markets in the Great Lakes region, Pew was entrusted with the task of laying the pipes. He demonstrated his finesse in negotiations by securing more than 1, 000 permits to cross highways, 183 to cross railroads, and 34 to cross rivers and canals, and about 1, 000 easements on property from landowners.
Pew followed his older brother, John Howard Pew, as president and board chairman of Sun Shipbuilding in 1917, and was vice-president of the parent company from 1912 until his brother retired in 1947; he was then named chairman of the board of Sun Oil.
In 1935, Pew bought Farm Journal, which he merged with Farmer's Wife as a means of communicating with the rural voters; later he added Pathfinder, another periodical with a large rural circulation. With other members of the Pew family, he acquired a controlling interest in the Chilton Press, which published a number of trade magazines read by businessmen, and the Philadelphia Evening Ledger.
Pew's massive contributions to Republican campaign funds gave him a major role in party affairs. Yet the results of his shaking up the party were disappointing to opponents of the New Deal. A Democrat was elected mayor of Philadelphia in 1935. The competent but colorless Republican candidate, Alfred M. Landon, lost the presidential race in 1936. But in 1938 the Republicans elected Arthur H. James governor of Pennsylvania with an expenditure of $1. 2 million, 20 percent of which was contributed by the Pews. In 1939-1940 the Pew forces supported Governor James as a candidate for president, with Robert A. Taft of Ohio as their second choice. At the Republican National Convention in June 1940, as the support for Wendell W. Willkie mounted and the galleries chanted "We want Willkie, " Pew refused to release the Pennsylvania delegation to Willkie. Willkie was nominated without help from Pennsylvania. In 1944, though, Pew was an effective leader of the "stop Willkie" forces, and Willkie withdrew from the race.
Pew never sought or held any public office, although he was regularly a Pennsylvania delegate to the Republican National Convention. The only business organization in which he was active, aside from Sun Oil, was the American Petroleum Institute, which he served as a director and member of the executive committee.
He died in Philadelphia.
Joseph Newton Pew Jr. was one of the wealthiest men in America. He was well-known as the chairman of the board of Sun Oil, among his contributions to marketing were the use of blue in the company's Blue Sunoco gasoline, and the "custom-blending" pump that delivered gasoline in nine different octane ratings. For oil exploration Pew devised a gyroscopic instrument, that measured the angle and direction of deviation in oil wells, thus aiding in the achievement of record drilling depths. Outside the oil industry Pew was best known for his political activities as a behind-the-scenes strategist of the conservative wing of the Republican party. Pew and his siblings founded The Pew Charitable Trusts, a group of philanthropic foundations that support social needs around the world.
He was a vigorous and articulate opponent of government interference with market forces, especially the price-fixing clause in the National Recovery Administration's petroleum code. Asserting that "price-fixing is an evil, wicked thing, " Pew led a successful fight against the provision. The experience convinced him that the free economy was in danger, and that the salvation of individual freedom required a change in government. Rebuilding the Republican party after its losses during the early 1930's became the main interest of his later years.
Quotes from others about the person
"Throughout these bleak years, " Joe Martin, former Speaker of the House of Representatives and former Republican National Committee chairman, wrote, "I could, fortunately, still count on financial support from. Joseph N. Pew, Jr. of Pennsylvania he has given millions his contributions kept coming in. Without them the party might have utterly dried up. " Yet, Martin added, "In all the years I have known him he has never asked me for a single favor. "
On September 23, 1916, Pew married Alberta Caven Hensel; they had five children.
