(November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, County Fife; August 11, 1919 in Lenox, Massachusetts) was a Scottish-born American industrialist and steel magnate. Born the son of a weaver, Carnegie became the richest man of his time. Along with Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan, he was one of the four most influential pioneers who revolutionized business and industry in the United States. Carnegie was famous as a philanthropist and donated a total of more than $350 million. This sum represented four-fifths of his fortune at the time.
Carnegie founded 23 foundations in the UK, the USA and Europe, including the Foundation for Lifesavers in Switzerland (1912).

 

 

The Carnegie Foundation in Switzerland

In 1911, Andrew Carnegie presented the Federal Council with an endowment of $130,000 – valued at 650,000 Swiss francs at the time – to establish the Carnegie Lifesaver Foundation. In the letter accompanying this donation, Carnegie wrote: "We live in a heroic age. Industrialization develops the heroes of peace. Hardly a day goes by without reports of courageous acts being reported to the heroic foundations."