Rachel Mellon Walton
Rachel Larimer Mellon Walton was an American philanthropist.Biography
Walton was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the daughter of William Larimer Mellon, of the banking family, and himself a founder of Gulf Oil. Her mother was Mary "May" Taylor Mellon. Walton was educated at the Dobbs Ferry School in Dobbs Ferry, New York. In 1922, she married John Fawcett Walton, Jr. and together they raised four children at their home in the East End of Pittsburgh.
Rachel Mellon Walton was a major benefactor to the arts, music, medicine, education, conservation, and the welfare of women. Among her endowments was major financial support for the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, founded by her brother, Dr. William Larimer Mellon Jr., in Deschapelles, Haiti. Walton also endowed the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; the Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh; the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business; and the Women's Center and Shelter of Pittsburgh. In the 1970s Walton donated land to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy for the Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve.
She died in her Oakland, Pennsylvania residence on March 2, 2006, at 107 years old.
