Armand Hammer (1898–1992) was an American physician-turned entrepreneur, business magnate, philanthropist, and art collector. During the 1960s, he rescued Occidental Petroleum Company from the brink of financial ruin and transformed it into a “Big Oil” company. His early, helpful relations with the Soviet Union were instrumental in initiating trade between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Born in New York City, Hammer graduated from Columbia University in 1919 and took an M.D. there in 1921. In the 1920s, Hammer used family connections in the newly established USSR to become an essential East-West business conduit, exporting Russian products such as asbestos and importing foodstuffs and machinery. He returned to New York with the rise of Stalin and ran successful businesses dealing in art and artifacts, distilleries, and cattle ranching.
In 1956, Hammer decided to go into the oil business, primarily as a tax shelter. He bought up Occidental Petroleum Company, a nearly bankrupt concern, and quickly struck oil along the southern California coast. Five years later, Occidental secured exclusive rights to develop Libyan oil. Hammer used the profits to turn Occidental into a massive conglomerate with interests in real estate, oil, oil refining, chemicals, coal, and fertilizers. He remained active in his business and Soviet interests until his death.
Hammer entered into an extraordinary round of philanthropic ventures throughout his life, including sponsoring medical aid for Russians injured in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.
Hammer wrote his autobiography Hammer (1987.) He is the subject of many biographies including Bob Considine’s The Remarkable Life of Armand Hammer (1975,) and Edward Jay Epstein’s Hammer in Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer (1996.)
More: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) • READ: Works by Armand Hammer
Regrets and recriminations only hurt your soul.
—Armand Hammer
When you work seven days a week, fourteen hours a day, you get lucky.
—Armand Hammer
Topics: Luck
When I work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky.
—Armand Hammer
Topics: Luck
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Sidney Sheldon American Novelist, Screenwriter
- Robert Penn Warren American Novelist, Poet
- Billy Wilder American Filmmaker
- Beverly Sills American Singer
- Margaret Mead American Cultural Anthropologist
- Langston Hughes American Novelist
- Stephen Jay Gould American Paleontologist
- Alan Greenspan American Economist
- Bernard Malamud American Novelist
- Pearl Bailey American Singer, Actress