Franklin Walter Olin
It would be hard to top Franklin Walter Olin, major league outfielder 1884-85. An engineering graduate of Cornell, after his ball-playing days he went into the powder manufacturing business (i.e. gunpowder not bath powder), and founded the F.W. Olin Company. He supplied France with ammunition during World War I, then entered into the automotive and appliance field. His company later became the Olin-Mathison Chemical Corporation, and today is known as the Olin Corporation. More than 60 years after Olin's death, his corporation is still a multi-billion dollar a year business, and is one of the Fortune 500 companies.
I wrote a short bio of Olin for a SABR publication 30+ years ago, but can't find a link to it now. A much more complete bio can be found here:
http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/0daaa2df
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