Franklin Walter Olin was the founder of the Olin Corporation.

He was born in Woodford, Vermont

Woodford, Vermont

Woodford is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 414 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 47.6 square miles , of which 47.5 square miles is land and 0.1 square mile is...

 and his father built mills and waterwheels. He studied civil engineering

Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, where he also played baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

; he would play as an outfielder in the American Association

American Association (19th century)

The American Association was a Major League Baseball league that existed for 10 seasons from to . During that time, it challenged the National League for dominance of professional baseball...

 for two seasons. After graduating with the class of 1886, he worked in several jobs before founding a blasting powder

Gunpowder

Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

 mill construction business; his first opened in East Alton, Illinois in 1892.

He formed the Western Cartridge Company

Western Cartridge Company

The Western Cartridge Company manufactures small arms and ammunitions. Founded in 1898, it was the forerunner of the Olin Corporation, formed in 1944, of which Western is still a subsidiary, and is based in East Alton, Illinois, USA...

 in 1898 to manufacture ammunition

Ammunition

Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...

, and during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 diversified into brass

Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...

making for use in cartridge

Cartridge (firearms)

A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...

 shells. In 1931 Olin acquired the Winchester Repeating Arms Company

Winchester Repeating Arms Company

The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American maker of repeating firearms, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The Winchester brand is today used under license by two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group, Fabrique Nationale of Belgium and the Browning Arms Company of Morgan, Utah.-...

. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Frank Olin retired from management of the firm, leaving it to his sons John

John M. Olin

John Merrill Olin was an American businessman. He was the son of Franklin W. Olin.-Early life:Born in Alton, Illinois, Olin graduated from Cornell University with a B.Sc. degree in chemistry and as a brother of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity...

 and Spencer

Spencer Truman Olin

Spencer Truman Olin was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was an executive of the Olin Corporation, founded in 1892 by his father, Franklin W. Olin...

.

He married Mary Mott Moulton of Toledo, Ohio

Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

 on May 28, 1889 http://olinfamilysociety.org/webcards/wc13/wc13_376.html. They had three sons, Franklin W. Jr. (predeceased), John

John M. Olin

John Merrill Olin was an American businessman. He was the son of Franklin W. Olin.-Early life:Born in Alton, Illinois, Olin graduated from Cornell University with a B.Sc. degree in chemistry and as a brother of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity...

, and Spencer

Spencer Truman Olin

Spencer Truman Olin was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was an executive of the Olin Corporation, founded in 1892 by his father, Franklin W. Olin...

, all three of whom also graduated from Cornell.

He died in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 in 1951. A portion of his fortune was willed to the F. W. Olin Foundation

F. W. Olin Foundation

The Franklin W. Olin Foundation was founded in 1938 by Franklin W. Olin.By the mid-1970s, the era of Horn, Wynn and Clark was ending, and the torch was passed to a new generation of board members. The transition in leadership began in 1974 with the election to the board of Carlton T. Helming, an...

, which endowed numerous buildings and professorships in his name at college campuses across the United States. In 1997 the foundation established Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering is a private undergraduate engineering college located in Needham, Massachusetts , adjacent to the Babson College campus. Olin College is noted in the engineering community for its youth, small size, project-based curriculum, and large endowment funded...

 in Needham, Massachusetts

Needham, Massachusetts

Needham is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 28,886 at the 2010 census.- History :...

.