1962 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
Frank G. Atkinson*
President
Joseph Dixon Crucible Company
Frank G. Atkinson, who eventually became chairman and president of the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company, began as an office boy. As he advanced in his career, young Atkinson realized he needed a formal education. He studied at hom...
2012 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
Wanda M. Austin
President and CEO, retired
The Aerospace Corporation
Wanda Austin, the middle of three daughters, was born in the Bronx in 1954. Her family lived above a barber shop, where her father cut hair 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week. "My father never finished high school," says Aus...
2008 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
William F. Austin
Chief Executive Officer
Starkey Hearing Foundation
Assistant
Starkey
William F. "Bill" Austin was born in February 1942 to J. E. "Dutch" and Zola Austin of Nixa, Missouri. His father worked as a lumber trader for Georgia-Pacific, and his mother worked in a factory. To supplement the family's inc...
1964 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
Gene Autry*
Actor, Producer & Businessman
Gene Autry, "America's #1 Singing Cowboy," was born in Tioga, Texas, in 1907. His preacher grandfather taught him to sing in the church choir at age five. Later, he arose before dawn to do chores before walking miles to school....
2019 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
James W. Ayers
Executive Chairman of the Board
FirstBank
James "Jim" Ayers was born in 1943 in a small town in western Tennessee called Parsons. His mother was married and pregnant when her first husband died suddenly. A single mother, she worked as a bank teller to support herself a...
1955 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
Roger W. Babson*
President
Babson's Statistical Service
The son of a dry goods store owner, Roger Babson was born in 1875 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He studied engineering the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating in 1898, Babson worked for a time as an ...
1951 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
Frank Bailey*
President
Title Guarantee & Trust Company
Born in 1865 in Chatham, New York, Frank Bailey graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, and served as the college treasurer for 51 years. He began his professional career as a clerk at Title Guarantee and Trust C...
1972 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
William E. Bailey*
Chairman
Bestline Products, Inc.
William E. Bailey, one of 11 children, was born and raised in the hills of Kentucky. His father, a farmer, could barely read or write. Their home had no electricity until Bailey's teen years, and they never had indoor plumbing....
1954 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
Michael Baker, Jr.*
Michael Baker Corporation
Born in 1912 in Beaver, Pennsylvania, Michael Baker was one of 12 children in his family. He did odd jobs after school to earn spending money. Following in his father's footsteps, he became an engineer. After his freshm...
1957 Horatio Alger Award Recipient
Charles C. Bales*
Founder
C.C. Bales Agency
Charles C. Bales was born and raised in the mountain community of Pennington Gap, Virginia. When he was 12, he began working for the local general store after school. Later on, he drove a horse and wagon to deliver supplies to ...
