Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie A man of Scotland, a distinguished citizen of the United States, and a philanthropist devoted to the betterment of the world around him, Andrew Carnegie became famous at the turn of the twentieth century and became a real life rags to riches story. Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, on November 25, 1835, Andrew Carnegie entered the world in poverty. The son of a hand weaver, Carnegie received his only formal education during the short time between …

…Today (1908), and an Autobiography (1920). Although Carnegie only stood somewhere between 5’2” and 5’6”, he “had to be a great, tough, disciplined giant of a man.” His commitment to others is not only seen through his many munificent works, but in the way he lived, including his tombstone in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery of North Tarrytown, New York, where the epitaph reads, “Here lies a man who was able to surround himself with men far cleverer than himself."