E. Bronson Ingram II

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E. Bronson Ingram II
Born
Erskine Bronson Ingram II

(1931-11-27)November 27, 1931
Orrin Henry Ingram, Sr.
Hortense Bigelow Ingram
RelativesOrrin Henry Ingram (paternal great-grandfather)
Julius Ingram (paternal great-great-uncle)
Erskine B. Ingram (paternal grandfather)
Frederic B. Ingram (brother)
Ingrid Goude (sister-in-law)
Sarah LeBrun Ingram (daughter-in-law)

E. Bronson Ingram II (1931–1995) was an American billionaire heir and business executive. He served as the Chairman of Ingram Industries from 1963 to 1995.[1][2][3][4][5] He was a director and large shareholder of Weyerhaeuser. He was tried and acquitted of corruption regarding a Chicago sewage deal in the 1970s.

Early life

Erskine Bronson Ingram II was born in

Orrin Henry Ingram, Sr. and Hortense Bigelow Ingram.[1][2][3][4] He was named after his grandfather.[6] His family moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1948.[1]

E. Bronson Ingram was educated at the Phillips Academy and Montgomery Bell Academy.[4] He attended college at Vanderbilt University and transferred to Princeton University, graduating in 1953.[1][2][3][4][7] At Princeton, he majored in English, and belonged to the Republican Club.[4]

Career

E.B. Ingram joined the United States Navy as a naval officer, when he sailed to Panama on a destroyer until 1955, when he resigned.[1][2][4] He then started working for his father's company, the Ingram Oil & Refining Co., later known as the Ingram Corporation.[1][3][5] In particular, he managed the company-owned service stations and helped build truck stops where Ingram truckers could sleep, shower, or eat.[6]

After the death of his father in 1963, E.B. Ingram became President and his brother,

pipeline system, headquartered in New Orleans.[1]

E.B. Ingram took over the

Ingram Micro Incorporated.[1] It quickly became the largest distributor of microcomputer hardware and software in the world.[1]

E.B. Ingram Ingram also founded Ingram Entertainment, the largest wholesale distributor of pre-recorded videocassettes.[1]

He served on the Board of Directors of Weyerhaeuser.[10] In 1988, he owned 222,380 shares.[10] He served as the President of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce in 1987, and later as Vice-Chairman of the Tennessee Industrial and Agricultural Development Commission.[1][2][3]

Philanthropy

E. Bronson Ingram held leadership positions in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in the late 1970s and the state Bicentennial Celebration of 1996.[1]

He joined the Vanderbilt Board of Trust in 1967, and served as its Chairman from 1991 to 1995.[1][2][3][7] He donated US$25 million to Vanderbilt.[1] Additionally, he helped fundraise US$500 million for the university.[11]

In 1993, he nominated the first

African-American accepted for membership in the Belle Meade Country Club.[1] He also supported Inroads and the Nashville Symphony.[3] He was a member and former Chair of the PENCIL Foundation, a non-profit organization whose aim is to improve public education in Nashville.[3] He served as the Chairman of the steering committee of Nashville's Agenda.[3]

Personal life

In 1958, E. Bronson Ingram met Martha Robinson Rivers in New York City, and they got married the same year.[1][12][13] They moved to New Orleans, where the Ingram Corporation was headquartered, but moved back to Nashville in 1961.[1] They had three sons, David Bronson Ingram, Orrin H. Ingram II, and John R. Ingram, and one daughter, Robin Ingram Patton.[1][2][4]

Death and legacy

E.B. Ingram died of cancer on June 15, 1995.[1][2] At the time of his death, he was Tennessee's only billionaire and 56th richest person in the United States.[1][5] Golfer Arnold Palmer was a pallbearer at his funeral. He is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery.[1] The Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and the Ingram Studio Arts Center are named for him.[7]

Bibliography

About him

  • Martha Rivers Ingram, E. Bronson Ingram: Complete These Unfinished Tasks of Mine (2001)[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Tennessee Encyclopedia
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Leslie Eaton, 'E. Bronson Ingram, Who Built Family Concern Into Giant, 63', in The New York Times, June 21, 1995 [1]
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cythia Manley, 'Cancer Center helps carry on E. Bronson Ingram's legacy', in Reporter, [2] Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b c d e f g E. Bronson Ingram II '53, in Princeton Alumni Weekly, September 13, 1995 "Princeton Alumni Weekly: E. Bronson Ingram II". Archived from the original on 2012-12-10. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
  5. ^ a b c 'E. Bronson Ingram; Ran Oil and Barge Firm', in Los Angeles Times, June 22, 1995 [3]
  6. ^ a b c Ingram Marine Group history Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ a b c "Tennessee Portraits". Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
  8. Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  9. ^
  10. ^ E. Thomas Wood, The Empire Strikes Back: Protecting the Ingram family fortunes Archived 2015-07-08 at the Wayback Machine, Nashville Scene, June 6, 1996
  11. ^ John Minott Rivers Papers, 1900-1997
  12. ^ Theresa Jensen Lacey, Amazing Tennessee: fascinating facts, entertaining tales, bizarre happenings, and historical oddities from the Volunteer State, Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2000 [4]
  13. ^ Worldcat