Joseph N. Pew, Jr.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pew was the youngest son of Mary Anderson Pew and Joseph N. Pew. Called "Joe," he attended Shady Side Academy and graduated from Cornell University with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1908. As an undergraduate, Pew was captain of the track team and won the IC4A championship in the hammer throw. He was also a member of the Quill and Dagger society. As an outstanding athlete and donor to Cornell athletics, he was inducted into the Cornell University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.

Pew married Alberta C. Hensel and had five children.

In 1948, Pew and his siblings founded The Pew Charitable Trusts, a group of philanthropic foundations that support social needs around the world. Among the foundation’s funded projects is the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan opinion research group that focuses on issues of the press, public policy, and politics.

As of 2007, it was one of the nation's wealthiest foundations. The first grant given to education was to Cornell University, where the Pew Engineering Quad and an engineering professorship bear his name. In 1951, Pew began an effort to assist traditionally black colleges, hiring Cornell alumnus Jerome H. Holland as a consultant to the foundation.

In 1957, Pew was listed on the Fortune Magazine list of the seventy-six wealthiest Americans.

In 1933–34 Pew went to Washington, D.C., to fight the New Deal petroleum code, which he believed would lead to price-fixing. This endeavor was the beginning of his political career. Pew was heavily involved in Republican politics, mostly in Pennsylvania, for much of his life and was a delegate to Republican National Convention. He employed John Hamilton as a personal advisor and political consultant. He strongly opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policies, such as price-fixing and organized labor. By strategically spending millions of dollars, Pew earned a reputation as Pennsylvania's political boss, controlling state and national elections. He funded the operations and staff of the Republican National Committee headquarters in an effort to keep Franklin D. Roosevelt out of office. Although largely unsuccessful on the national scene, Pew's work in his home state was responsible for a number of elections. Pew is also given credit for the election of both Arthur H. James and Edward Martin as Pennsylvania Governor and Bernard Samuel as Mayor of Philadelphia.

Pew appeared on the cover of Time Magazine on May 6, 1940 as "Republican Pew" along with an article about his political involvement.