COLUMBUS – Golfing legend Jack Nicklaus, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller are the latest individuals to be recognized as “Great Ohioans.”
They have been named the recipients of the 2016 “Great Ohioans Award,” presented by the Capitol Square Foundation and the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, after being selected from nominations submitted by residents and organizations throughout the state.
Since 2003, 39 other Ohioans have been recognized with the award for the special roles they played in history, becoming part of the permanent Great Ohioan exhibit within the 5,000-square-foot Ohio Statehouse Museum.
Nicklaus, an Upper Arlington native, won a total of 18 career major golf championships over a span of 25 years. The “Golden Bear” focused on the majors — the Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship — and played a selective schedule of regular PGA Tour events but still finished with 73 career victories, third on the all-time list behind Sam Snead (82) and Tiger Woods (79). At the age of 46, Nicklaus claimed his 18th and final major championship at the 1986 Masters, becoming that tournament’s oldest winner. Nicklaus also founded the Memorial Tournament, played at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, and a golf course design company that is one of the largest in the world.
Rockefeller founded Standard Oil as an Ohio partnership with his brother and four others in 1870. As kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, Rockefeller’s wealth soared and he became the world’s richest man and the first American worth more than a billion dollars, controlling 90 percent of all oil in the United States at his peak. Adjusting for inflation, his fortune at his death in 1937 stood at $336 billion, accounting for more than 1.5 percent of the national economy, making him the richest person in U.S. history. His fortune was mainly used to create foundations that had a major effect on medicine, education and scientific research, leading to the modern systematic approach of targeted philanthropy.
Stewart, who entered local politics in Cincinnati after World War II, served for 23 years as a member of the nation’s highest court. His tenure roughly coincided with the eras of chief justices Earl Warren and Warren Burger, when Stewart’s centrist views kept him outside the prevailing liberal consensus while also allowing him to skirt the Burger court’s occasionally aggressive pursuit of politically conservative causes. He later played a significant role in formulating the court’s unanimous 1974 opinion that ordered President Richard Nixon to surrender tape recordings over to the special prosecutor investigating the White House’s role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up. The disclosure of the tapes led Nixon to resign the presidency.