Spencer Penrose

Spencer Penrose (November 2, 1865 – December 7, 1939) was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He made his fortune from mining, ore processing, and real estate speculation in Colorado and other parts of the West. He founded the Utah Copper Company in 1903, and also established mining operations in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. He settled with his fortune in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he and partner Charles L. Tutt had a road constructed to the top of Pikes Peak. They initiated an annual motor car race to the top. In 1918 Penrose opened an opulent resort hotel known as The Broadmoor, built outside the city which was a "dry" community. In 1937 he and his wife Julie established the El Pomar Foundation, to support activities to improve Colorado. In 2001, Penrose was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Early life and education Spencer "Spec" Penrose was born on November 2, 1865, as the fifth of seven sons of a prominent Philadelphia family. The family traces its paternal line to immigrant ancestor Bartholomew Penrose, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1698. Spencer's father, Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose, was a doctor, who in 1854 founded the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Spencer's mother, Sarah Hannah (Boies) Penrose, promoted a simple life of austerity for her family. The first son died in infancy, leaving Boies Penrose, Charles Bingham, Richard Alexander Fullerton Jr., Spencer, Francis Boies, and Phillip Thomas. The Penrose men attended Harvard University, and Boies, Charles, and Richard graduated from there with high honors. Unlike them, Spencer graduated from Harvard at the bottom of his class, but his ambitions were to travel west and make his career on the frontier, rather than as a doctor, lawyer or politician like his brothers.