Pew, J. Howard (John Howard), 1882-1971

A private trust company and successor to the Pew Memorial Foundation, the Glenmede Trust Company was chartered in 1956 to administer three Pew family trusts. By the mid-1980s Glenmede's dual identity, as both for-profit financial management company and not-for-profit philanthropic institution, proved unwieldy. In 1987 the not-for-profit activities were spun off as The Pew Charitable Trusts, thereby establishing an identity separate from the the Glenmede Trust Company. J. Howard Pew served on the Committee on Grants, Donations, and Contributions, for twenty-three years.

The second son of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph Newton Pew (1848-1912), J. Howard Pew succeeded his father as president in 1912. He held the position for thirty-five years. In 1948 J. Howard Pew, along with brother Joseph N., Jr. (1886-1963) and sisters Mary Ethel Pew (1884-1979) and Mabel Pew Myrin (1889-1972), founded the Pew Memorial Foundation. Joining them were cousin Jno. G. Pew, Frederick B. Hufnagel, Jr., J. N. Pew, III, and J. Howard's wife Helen. They capitalized the foundation with 880,000 shares of Sun Oil Company stock priced at one dollar per share. Meeting for the first time on April 3, 1948 the trustees defined four areas of giving: scientific, charitable, religious, and educational. By 1957 a rapid rise in grant requests led the trustees to dissolve the foundation and establish the Glenmede Trust Company to better administer the Pew family's charitable foundations.

J. Howard Pew (1882-1971) was born in Bradford, Pa., in 1882. He attended Grove City College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From there he went to work for his father, Joseph N. Pew, Sr., the founder of the Sun Oil Company. He became a supervisor at the Marcus Hook Refinery where he was instrumental in developing the Sun Red Line lubricants. In 1906 he was named vice president and member of the board of directors. When his father died in 1912, he became president - a position he was to hold until 1947.

J. Howard Pew was a prominent member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Manufacturers. He served on the National Petroleum War Service Committee (1915-1918) and was a founder of the American Petroleum Institute.

Pew was an elder and trustee of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. He was an active supporter of the periodicals CHRISTIAN ECONOMICS and CHRISTIANITY TODAY. He was also a leader of the conservative Republican opposition to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.