Robert Dollar (1844-1932)

He was born in Scotland at Falkirk in Stirlingshire and dropped out of school age-9. He came to Canada with his father and stepmother when he was fourteen and started work in a lumber camp. He began buying lumber camps in Canada and Michigan before moving to California, buying timberland on the west coast. By 1895, he had ventured into shipping and in 1905 bought "Falkirk" in San Rafael which would remain his home for the rest of his life. He and his sons incorporated the Robert Dollar Company and their shipping business became one of the largest in the world, offering a round-the-world passenger service too. His fame saw him featured on the front of Time magazine and he was nicknamed the "Grand Old Man of the Pacific" and was "all but a god in the Orient". He was a generous philanthropist in both California and Scotland. In 1874, he married Mary Proudfoot and had three sons and a daughter (listed above).