# Who Were The Richest Men In The U.S. From 1937 To 1982?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-richest-men-in-the-u-s-from-1937-to-1982/197586
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 25, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-richest-men-in-the-u-s-from-1937-to-1982/197586 "2003-08-25T20:01:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-richest-men-in-the-u-s-from-1937-to-1982/197586/1 "2003-08-25T20:01:19Z")
I’m trying to write out a list of the richest people in the U.S. during the 20th century, year-by-year.
For the last 20 years or so of the century, it’s been easy, due to the Forbes 400 lists, and, during the early part of the 20th century, it’s easy, because John D. Rockefeller was head-and-shoulders about all his business rivals.
However, for the years between Rockefeller’s death in 1937 and the first Forbes 400 list in 1982, I’m having trouble determining who the richest man was, on a year-by-year level.
Does anyone know the answer?
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-richest-men-in-the-u-s-from-1937-to-1982/197586/2 "2003-08-27T07:23:09Z")
Michael Kelpper and Robert Gunther wrote a book, _The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates - A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present_. In 1998 they updated their data for an article published in _American Heritage_. The top 25 people on their list are [here](http://www.carleton.ca/comsoc/commpress/archive/cpoct98.htm) perhaps you can create a timeline.