George Fabyan

The rich are different, but George Fabyan was unique among millionaires. This Gilded Age tycoon sponsored and inspired a "community of thinkers" who changed how we wage wars and keep secrets, how we transmit sound and design buildings, and how we stimulate scientific advances. Fabyan created perhaps the first independent research center, laid the foundation for the top-secret National Security Agency, and even helped end World War I by breaking German codes, capturing foreign terrorists, and developing more effective trench mortars.