George Owen Knapp

George Owen Knapp (January 21, 1855 in Hatfield, Massachusetts—July 21, 1945 in Santa Barbara, California) was a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist. He was the President of Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company in Chicago, Illinois by 1893. In 1894 he was a founder of the Union Calcium Carbide Company which he reformulated as Union Carbide in 1904. He was CEO and President, and the Board Chair of Union Carbide until 1933.

Knapp's philanthropy was broad, but where he focused it was in medical care. He funded the growth and provided key leadership to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital starting in 1914. In 1931 he funded the Knapp Hospital in Crescent City, California.

Knapp grew up in Hatfield, son of Jared Owen Knapp and Sara Elizabeth Beach Knapp. He attended Hatfield High School and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1876 with a degree in Civil Engineering. He worked as an engineer for the War Department for one year, then joined the New Britain Gas Company in Connecticut. Moving to New York, we worked as a gas main inspector and then worked at laying out new mains for the Fullerton Municipal Gas Works. In 1883, he moved the Chicago where he joined Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company.

Knapp worked at Peoples for twenty-one years, becoming President in 1893. While there, he became close friends with the son of the prior company president, Albert Merritt Billings. Albert's son was Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings who later became President of Peoples, and co-founder with Knapp of Union Carbide.

Knapp learned of calcium carbide (discovered in 1888) in 1894. The colorless compound was used in the production of acetylene and calcium cyanamide. Acetylene was critical to the large and quickly growing steel industry for its use in welding. That year, with Billings, he formed the Union Calcium Carbide Company. Over the next ten years, Knapp focused on getting the business off the ground.

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