Paul Mellon
1907 - 1999
Thoroughbred racing is but one of many aspects of society to benefit from the philanthropy of Paul Mellon. A book published in the 1990s listed $640 million in major charitable donations. Mellon's interests range from the work of Carl Jung to gazing at mares and foals in the fields of his Virginia Farm, Rokeby. Mellon's love of art has been expressed by such projects as funding the Yale Center for British Art and a wing of the Virginia Art Museum and then filling them with priceless treasures. He also is a past chairman of the National art Gallery, which was given to the nation by his father, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon.
Yale man Mellon has been in horse racing since his post-graduate days at Cambridge, and he has boarded mares and stood stallions in Kentucky for many years. He is the only owner to have won the English Derby, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and the Kentucky Derby. Mellon's Great Mill Reef won the first two and Sea Hero won the Kentucky Derby in 1993. Perhaps his greatest contribution has been a style and grace which set an enduring example of sportsmanship.
Marker can be reached from the intersection of East Main Street (U.S. 60) and Midland Avenue (U.S. 60), on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
