William Walker Scranton

William Walker Scranton (April 4, 1844 – December 3, 1916) was an American businessman based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He became president and manager of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company after his father's death in 1872. The company had been founded by his father's cousin George W. Scranton. Among his innovations, Scranton adopted the Bessemer process for his operations in 1876, greatly increasing production of steel ties with a new mill. Scranton founded the Scranton Steel Company, in 1891 consolidated as Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company. The steel company became the second largest in the nation. He later also managed the Scranton Gas and Water Company, developing a secure water supply outside the city by creating Lake Scranton.

William W. Scranton managed the Lackawanna works during and after the Scranton General Strike of 1877.

In 1902 Lackawanna Steel Company moved to a location south of Buffalo, New York on Lake Erie for access to new production of iron ore being shipped from Minnesota. The city of Lackawanna, New York was named after the company. Scranton stayed in his home city, working to develop companies and infrastructure.

William Walker Scranton was born in 1844 in Augusta, Georgia, the oldest of six children of Joseph Hand Scranton of Connecticut and his second wife Cornelia Walker (Feb. 22, 1823-Feb. 22, 1895), "ten years his junior, and the youngest daughter and child of the late Judge William P. Walker of Lenox, Massachusetts." Joseph Scranton started in business in Augusta, moving his family in 1847 to Scranton, Pennsylvania. He had invested the year before in an ironworks started by two of his cousins, brothers George and Selden T. Scranton. J.H. Scranton's investment in their firm in 1846 saved the firm from bankruptcy. He later became president of Lackawanna Iron & Coal, serving until his death in 1872.

William was the oldest of six children, with two brothers and three sisters, all of whom were born after the family's move to Pennsylvania. They also had an older half-brother Joseph A. Scranton. He attended Scranton High, moving to Phillips Andover to complete preparation for college. William Scranton graduated from Yale in 1865. There he rowed crew as one of his sports.

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