James B. Duke rose from a humble farm near Durham to become the head of British American Tobacco, one of the largest multinational corporations in the world in the early 20th century. His foresight in automating the manufacture of cigarettes helped the family’s small North Carolina operations grow to control 90 percent of U.S. cigarette production by 1890. It made him one of the richest men in America, and although he relocated to New York City, the Carolinas always remained near to his heart. After the U.S. Supreme Court in 1911 broke up the tobacco conglomerate over anti-trust concerns, he shifted his attention to hydroelectric power and launched the Southern Power Company, precursor to today’s Duke Energy. The utility brought electricity to towns and factories across the Carolinas. Mr. Duke came from a family of philanthropists. In creating the Endowment, he built on the foundation of giving established by his father, Washington, and carried on by his older brother, Ben. Mr. Duke labored over the creation of the Endowment; he had his staff spend months studying community needs in North Carolina and South Carolina before finalizing plans for the Endowment. He mused at one point that it seemed “almost as difficult for a man to give away his money rightly as it is to make it.” On Dec. 11, 1924, he signed the Indenture of Trust, establishing the Endowment with an initial gift of $40 million. After his death in 1925, he left through his will an additional $67 million in philanthropic support for health care, education, child welfare and rural churches. “I shall never forget the delight with which Mr. Duke in the utmost confidence unfolded the idea to me,” his lawyer, William R. Perkins, would recall years later. “He felt (the Endowment) met the test of real assistance. It helped others to help themselves.” In describing the gift, Mr. Duke said: “It will be seen that I have endeavored to make provision in some measure for the needs of mankind along physical, mental and spiritual lines.” He died in New York City on October 10, 1925; his funeral was the largest Durham had ever known. Thousands lined the streets and gathered around Duke Memorial Methodist Church, which the Duke brothers had erected on the Duke University campus. Some 1,400 students formed a guard of honor from church to cemetery, and Trustees of the Endowment served as honorary pallbearers. Mr. Duke is interred with his father and brother at the church.