George Walbridge Perkins (1862-1920) was a well-known and oft-criticized figure in American business during the early twentieth century. He spent many years in the insurance business, where he established a network of company agents that became the industry standard. Perkins also instituted one of the first-ever pension plans for employees at New York Life Insurance Company. He later worked with Wall Street powerhouse J. P. Morgan, where he supervised the consolidation of smaller firms into some of the biggest names in American industry.

Perkins was born in Chicago on January 31, 1862, into a family whose roots in America dated back to the 1631 arrival of one John Perkins to New England. His father had been involved in several business enterprises, but was also an active Presbyterian who worked as an occasional prison missionary. At the time of his first son's birth, the elder Perkins was serving as head of Chicago's...