Roy James Carver

Carver was born on December 5, 1909, to James and Laura Carver in Preemption, Illinois. In 1927, he completed high school in Moline, Illinois. After earning a BS degree in engineering from the University of Illinois in 1934, Carver became state engineer for Illinois. In 1938, during the Great Depression, Carver and his brother Ralph started the Carver Pump Company in Matherville, Illinois. The company created self-priming pumps, and it soon supplied the United States and Allied Forces navies during World War II.[1] Due to the need for a larger facility, the company was moved to an abandoned sauerkraut factory in Muscatine, Iowa. Carver also lived in Muscatine, and shortly after moving there he married Lucille Young in 1942. The two of them had five children.[1]

Carver bought the North American rights to a manufacturing process for tires created by Bernard Anton Nowak as a part of Bandag, Inc. The process "cures or vulcanizes rubber tires at lower temperatures than other retreading processes". After Nowak died in 1961, Carver bought the worldwide rights to the process and gained full ownership of Bandag. Bandag became one of the top American corporations in the early 1970s. In 1973, the company's sales earned the 909th spot on Fortune's top 1,000 companies. During the late 1970s, Carver created more than 850 dealership franchises in more than 50 countries.[1]

In 1954, Carver flew alone across the Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland to Paris in a one-engine Beechcraft Bonanza. He made only one stop during the plane trip.[2] Starting in 1972 after divorcing his wife, Carver spent most of his time at his Miami home. He also bought a villa in Cannes, a 25,000-acre ranch in Central America, two yachts, multiple airplanes, and many expensive cars.[3]

Carver primarily donated money to people in Iowa, and it was noted in the Muscatine Journal that "he took great pleasure in helping others". He also contributed financially to Richard Nixon's presidential campaign and to Augustana College. In 1971, Carver donated shares of Bandag stock valued at $3.5 million to the University of Iowa, which was the university's largest donation at the time. The first donation to the University of Iowa was one of several.[1] He started the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, which provided millions of dollars to the University of Iowa, Augustana College, and St. Ambrose University.[4] He founded the Roy Carver Memorial Pavilion, a treatment center at the University of Iowa Hospitals, and the Carver Wing of the Museum of Art. He died of a heart attack on June 7, 1981, at 71 years of age in Marbella, Spain.[2]