Benjamin Franklin Fairless

Benjamin Franklin Fairless
Benjamin Fairless in 1939
4th President of U.S. Steel
In office January 1, 1938 – May 3, 1955
Preceded by	William A. Irvin
Succeeded by	Walter Munford
Personal details
Born	(1890-05-03)May 3, 1890 Pigeon Run, Ohio, U.S.
Died	January 1, 1962(1962-01-01) (aged 71) Ligonier, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Jane Blanche Truby Fairless (1912-1942; her death); Hazel Hatfield Sproul (1944-1955; div.)
Occupation	President, Central Steel (1928-1930); First Vice President, Republic Steel (1930-1935); President, Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company (1935-1938); President, Chairman, & Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Steel (1938-1955)

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Benjamin Franklin Fairless (May 3, 1890 — January 1, 1962) was an American steel company executive. He was president of a wide range of steel companies during a turbulent and formative period in the American steel industry. His roles included President of Central Alloy Steel from 1928 to 1930; First Vice President of Republic Steel (which had absorbed Central Steel) from 1930 to 1935; President of the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company from 1935 to 1938; and then President, and later Chairman of the board of directors and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Steel (the largest steel company in the United States) from 1938 to 1955.

Fairless was a well-known humanitarian, and one of the few steel executives willing to allow unionization in the steel industry. He received the Medal for Merit in 1946 for helping to break steel production bottlenecks in the United States during World War II.

Fairless was born Benjamin Franklin Williams in May 1890 in Pigeon Run, Ohio (a hamlet near the town of Massillon). His father was David Dean Williams, a poor coal miner born in Wales in 1865, and Ruth Wooley Williams, a miner's daughter from Pontypool, Wales, born in 1867. His parents emigrated to the United States in the 1880s, and settled in Ohio. They married in October 1888. Benjamin was their second child; he had an older brother, John, and two younger siblings, Mary Ann and Ralph.

His father was a coal miner and worked summers as a farmer, and the family remained poor. Fairless later recalled that his father repeatedly said the only way to survive in the world was to work and work very hard. His mother was seriously injured in a horse and buggy accident when he was two years old, and he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Sarah and Jacob Fairless, in nearby Justus, Ohio. His uncle ran a small grocery store from the front of his home. His relatives adopted him, and he took their last name. (He continued to maintain a home in Justus until the end of his life.) He began selling copies of the Cleveland Press at the age of five to raise money for his family. Fairless remained close to his mother and father, however. He described his father as a happy-go-lucky person who liked almost everyone, and who thought little of walking 10 miles (16 km) on his day off to see his teenage son play baseball. His called his mother "a truly great woman" who had little education but who taught her children the values of honesty, thrift, hard work, and saving.