{{Short description|American industrialist (1868–1951)}} {{Infobox biography | name = Maxwell Becton | birth_name = Maxwell Wilber Becton | birth_date = August 22, 1868 | birth_place = Kinston, North Carolina, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1951|01|02|1868|08|22}} | death_place = Rutherford, New Jersey, US | education = Rutherford College | occupation = Industrialist and businessman | employer = Becton, Dickinson and Company | known_for = Co-founder of Fairleigh Dickinson College }} '''Maxwell Wilber Becton''' (August 22, 1868 – January 2, 1951) was an American industrialist and businessman.<ref name=":2" /> He co-founded Becton, Dickinson and Company in 1897 with Fairleigh S. Dickinson.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=History of Becton, Dickinson & Company – FundingUniverse |url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/becton-dickinson-company-history/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=www.fundinguniverse.com}}</ref> He also co-founded Fairleigh Dickinson College.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=1951-01-03 |title=Maxwell Wilbur Bection Dies, Industrial and Civic Leader |pages=2 |work=The Herald-News |location=Passaic, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-maxwell-wilbur-bection-d/136892465/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
== Early life == Becton was born on his family's plantation in Kinston, North Carolina on August 22, 1868.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Phillips |first=Jane |date=2018-09-01 |title=Meet Maxwell Becton, entrepreneur |url=https://www.neusenews.com/index/2018/8/31/people-who-once-walked-the-streets-of-kinston |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=Neuse News |language=en-US}}</ref> His parents were Eliza and Jarman Becton.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> Growing up, he attended the Woodington Methodist Church.<ref name=":1" /> He attended local schools.<ref name=":3" /> He attended Rutherford College.<ref name=":1" /> However, the college burned in 1888, so he only completed two years of college.<ref name=":1" /> He then moved to New York.<ref name=":1" />
== Career == In New York in 1888, Becton worked as a salesman.<ref name=":3" /> In 1891, he moved to Montana where he worked in real estate.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> He moved to Boston in 1895 and co-founded Randall and Becton, a medical thermometer company.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> While in Texas on a sales trip, he met Fairleigh S. Dickinson (1866–1948), co-founder of Becton Dickinson and the named benefactor of Fairleigh Dickinson University who was a paper salesman.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /> The two men discovered that they grew up fifty miles apart in North Carolina and had the same birthday.<ref name=":1" /> They quickly became close friends.<ref name=":1" />
After buying out Randall, Becton and Dickinson created a partnership to sell medical thermometers and syringes, in 1897.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Later, the company also produced hypodermic needles and syringes to inject insulin.<ref name=":1" /> The company incorporated as Becton, Dickinson & Company in 1906 and built a manufacturing plant in East Rutherford, New Jersey.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> Becton served as the company's secretary and treasurer, and later served as the chairman of the board.<ref name=":2" />
Becton, Dickinson & Company supplied medical instruments to the United States Army during the Spanish–American War, World War I, and World War II.<ref name=":2" /> As the company expanded, it grew to become a manufacturer of instruments for surgery, dentistry, and veterinary.<ref name=":1" /> They also made medical bags<ref name=":1" /> and invented new instruments, including the binaural stethoscope and the mercurial sphygmomanometer that measured blood pressure.<ref name=":1" /> They also developed an all cotton elastic bandage, named the ACE bandage in 1918.<ref name=":1" /> In 1948, the founder's sons took over management of the company.<ref name=":0" />
In the 1920s, Becton and Fairleigh purchased the South Bergen Savings and Loan Association together, with Becton serving as its president.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /> The bank was later known as the National Community Bank of New Jersey.<ref name=":1" /> He was also vice president and a director of the Rutherford National Bank.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> He was president of the Bergen County Chamber of Commerce.<ref name=":3" />
== Personal life == Becton married Valarie Prentiss of Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1913.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> They had three children, Henry Becton, Suzanne Becton, and Valerie Becton.<ref name=":1" /> The family built a home in Rutherford, across the street from Dickinson's house.<ref name=":1" />
Becton was a major donor to Fairleigh Dickinson College when it was established in 1941, allowing the construction of Becton Hall.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" /> He served on the college's board of trustees.<ref name=":1" /> On the campus, Becton Hall and the Maxwell Becton School of Arts and Science were named in his honor.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> He was a trustee of Hackensack Hospital.<ref name=":3" /> He donated in his mother's memory to build a new building for the Woodington Methodist Church in Woodington, North Carolina.<ref name=":1" /> Later, he donated a Hammond electric organ to the church.<ref name=":1" />
He was a member of the Freemans, belonging to the Boiling Springs Lodge, the Knights Templar, and the Lafayette Commandery.<ref name=":2" /> He was president of the Rutherford Rotary Club, a director of the YMCA, and a member the New York Southern Society.<ref name=":3" /> He also belonged to the New Jersey Senior Golf Association.<ref name=":3" />
Becton had a stroke in 1943 and cut back on working.<ref name=":1" /> He died in his home in Rutherford, New Jersey on January 2, 1951, at the age of 83 years.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2">"[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/01/03/89768455.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 M.W. Becton Dead; Manufacturer, 83; Maker of Surgical Instruments Was a Founder of Fairleigh Dickinson College in 1941]", ''The New York Times'', January 3, 1951, p. 25.</ref> He was buried in the Hillside Cemetery in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.<ref name="nyt1">{{cite news |title= Sometimes the Grave Is a Fine and Public Place |quote=But there are a slew of other places around New Jersey with their own pantheons. Consider the eclectic group at rest in Hillside Cemetery in Lyndhurst: the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet William Carlos Williams and both founders of the former industrial giant Becton-Dickinson, Maxwell Becton and Fairleigh Dickinson, for whom the New Jersey university is named.|work=The New York Times |date=March 28, 2004 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Becton, Maxwell}} Category:1868 births Category:1951 deaths Category:BD (company) people Category:19th-century American businesspeople Category:People from Rutherford, New Jersey Category:Burials at Hillside Cemetery (Lyndhurst, New Jersey) Category:Businesspeople from Bergen County, New Jersey Category:People from Kinston, North Carolina