George Pepperdine

George Pepperdine College was founded in 1937, funded almost entirely by its namesake. Pepperdine made his fortune by founding the Western Auto Company, an auto parts retail company he later franchised. Pepperdine died in 1962. The tenth anniversary of his death passed without much fanfare in 1972, at which point his (second) wife Helen Pepperdine remained on the board of what was by that point Pepperdine University.