Title: Andrew Carnegie
Headings: Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Content: During his lifetime, Carnegie created a number of charitable institutions that bore his name. In 1900, he founded the Carnegie Technical Schools, later the Carnegie Institute, and known today as Carnegie Mellon University, one of the world’s leading research universities. In 1904, he created what he called his “pet child,” the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, which recognizes and rewards individuals who spontaneously risk life and limb to rush to the aid of others. A year later, he launched the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, whose many accomplishments include the Flexner Report (which revolutionized American medical education) and the provision of pensions to college faculty members (which increased the attractiveness of an academic career). Other organizations would bear his name, including the Carnegie Relief Fund (for the benefit of injured steelworkers), the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust (to support his hometown), and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (to bolster higher education in his native land). Manhattan’s Music Hall was not supposed to bear its patron’s name, but when European notables declined to attend a “music hall,” its benefactor relented and in 1893 the facility was renamed Carnegie Hall. Not all of Carnegie’s efforts turned out successfully. For much of the final third of his life, he devoted his fortune (and personal influence) to encourage the peaceful resolution of international conflicts. For precisely that purpose, he created and closely attended to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. The outbreak of World War I dashed his hopes of world peace and precipitated his retreat from the public stage.