--- aliases: - Hiram J. Halle - Hiram Halle - Halle, Hiram J. - Hiram Joseph Halle born: 1867 category: Business & Finance created: 2026-10-09 died: 1944 location: Cleveland, Ohio; New York City; Pound Ridge, New York relations: - fn: 3 role: president start: 1916 type: head_of with: '[[Universal Oil Products]]' - fn: 1 role: part owner type: owned with: '[[Gulf Oil Company]]' - fn: 2 role: principal funding, with the Rockefeller Foundation, for the University in Exile start: 1933 type: funded with: '[[New School for Social Research]]' - fn: 12 role: pledge of $60,000 a year for two years in Johnson's account start: 1933 type: funded with: '[[University in Exile]]' - fn: 20 role: financial supporter of the sculptor type: funded with: '[[Jacob Epstein]]' - fn: 20 role: nephew type: relative_of with: '[[Joseph Halle Schaffner]]' summary: Hiram J. Halle was a Cleveland-born businessman, president of Universal Oil Products and part owner of Gulf Oil, who provided principal funding with the Rockefeller Foundation for the New School's University in Exile in 1933. tags: - Person - HiramJHalle - UniversalOilProducts - GulfOil - UniversityInExile - NewSchoolForSocialResearch - PoundRidge - AlvinJohnson - JacobEpstein - Philanthropist updated: 2026-10-09 --- Hiram J. Halle (1867 to 1944) was an American businessman, inventor and philanthropist who was president of Universal Oil Products and part owner of Gulf Oil Company.[^1] In 1933 he provided principal funding, with the [Rockefeller Foundation](/organizations/rockefeller-foundation/), for the [University in Exile](/organizations/new-school-for-social-research/) that [Alvin Johnson](/people/alvin-johnson/) organized at the [New School for Social Research](/organizations/new-school-for-social-research/).[^1][^2] ### Early life Halle was born in Cleveland, Ohio and left high school to work in his family's dry goods store.[^1] The text of the marker erected for him by the Pound Ridge Historical Society and the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation on April 28, 2019, states that he was born in Cleveland to German Jewish immigrants.[^3] ### Typewriter patents Halle's earliest patents are two assigned to the Elliott-Fisher Company of [New York City](/places/new-york-city/). U.S. Patent 773,287, a type-writing machine, was filed on November 10, 1903 and granted on October 25, 1904. U.S. Patent 804,720, a bill or statement blank, was filed on March 14, 1905 and granted on November 14, 1905. Both specifications give his residence as New York, in the county of New York.[^4] ### Universal Oil Products The marker states that Halle was head of Universal Oil Products from 1916 to 1944.[^3] Universal Oil Products began as a firm formed to enforce patent rights to the cracking process of Jesse Dubbs, who retired in 1914 and died four years later.[^5] His son Carbon Dubbs stayed with the company to prove the process and spent most of his time on other projects, to the displeasure of the company's president, Halle.[^5] In 1919, the year the company took the name Universal Oil Products, Carbon Dubbs revealed a refining method called Clean Circulation, which circulated a quantity of refined gasoline back into the feedstock.[^5] The company's history records that "Halle decided UOP should license the Clean Circulation process to any refiner in exchange for a royalty fee, based on production," with UOP engineering its customers' refineries and guaranteeing performance.[^5] Licensing began with Shell Oil Company's Roxana refinery at Wood River, Illinois in 1922, and the company established its UOP Riverside Laboratory in present-day McCook, Illinois in 1921.[^5] A patent granted on March 7, 1933 for a process and apparatus for treating hydrocarbons, on an application dated February 6, 1926, names Halle of New York as inventor and assignor to Universal Oil Products Company of Chicago, a South Dakota corporation.[^6] A 2019 article in Westchester Magazine states that Halle retired as president of Universal Oil Products before taking up residence in Pound Ridge in 1929.[^7] In 1931, with a judgment against them in the cracking patent litigation, a consortium of defendants bought Universal Oil Products for $25 million through the United Gasoline Corporation, jointly controlled by Shell Oil and Standard Oil Company of California, and later including Standard Oil of Indiana, Standard Oil of New Jersey, The Texas Company, the Atlantic Refining Company and Gulf Oil.[^8] Time reported in 1936 that Chicago packer J. Ogden Armour had sold a few Universal Oil certificates to his wife for $1,500,000 before dying insolvent in London in 1927, and that four years later "the Widow Armour, Carbon Petroleum Dubbs and a handful of other stockholders sold out to a group of big oil companies for more than $22,000,000."[^9] The same article reports that the special master in the patent suit against Standard Oil of Indiana, the Missouri lawyer Holmes Hall, was found by a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to have "betrayed his trust by attempting to deceive, intimidate and coerce a wealthy litigant."[^9] ### Gulf Oil The archive of the New School describes Halle as part owner of Gulf Oil company.[^1] Daniel Bessner writes that Halle was part owner of the Gulf Oil Company.[^10] An article on Pound Ridge by Mary Shustack calls him an owner of Gulf Oil.[^11] ### University in Exile The school's history states that in April 1933 Johnson began to raise $60,000 per year for two consecutive years, and that this $120,000 was to support a faculty of fifteen scholars at $4,000 each. It states that "After only raising $10,000, Alvin Johnson received a donation of the whole $60,000 from Hiram J. Halle," making all other donations additions to the cause, and that additional funding from the Rockefeller Foundation "enabled him to enlarge his rescue efforts."[^2] Johnson's account in Pioneer's Progress has Halle telephone him after a letter Johnson had written to Edwin R.A. Seligman reached him. Johnson answered Halle's question about the amount pledged with "Twelve thousand," and Halle replied: "I am prepared to guarantee the sixty thousand a year for two years, so that you can go ahead at once."[^12] In the same account Frank Altschul said that "Hiram Halle's signature on a check for a million dollars would be accepted by any bank in New York" and advised keeping the offer quiet, because nobody would contribute if he knew Halle was ready to carry the whole load.[^12] Rutkoff and Scott write that Halle "had pledged the entire sum that Johnson required," that Johnson "had collected only between $7,000 and $15,000," and that Halle's name was kept out of the announcement; they describe him as having "made his fortune in petroleum refining and finance."[^13] Bessner writes that Johnson "had collected $120,000 from the Jewish philanthropist Hiram Halle, which allowed him to fund fifteen professorships at a salary of $4,000 per year," and describes Halle as associated with the Rockefeller Foundation, which he writes spent $1.4 million helping displaced scholars.[^14] Jerry Klinger writes that Halle guaranteed the salaries of Jewish refugee scholars through his association with the New School and obtained the needed visas. He writes that Halle and Johnson realized the [United States Department of State](/organizations/state-department/) would grant visas to farmers, that "It was a loophole," that "Halle provided seed money," and that the academics were classified as "farmers" and brought to Van Eeden, North Carolina.[^15] Klinger's commentary on the marker page adds that Halle supported the Van Eeden agricultural project in Burgaw, North Carolina.[^3] A state history of Van Eeden records that Johnson, working with Hugh MacRae, brought Jewish families there after finding that farm workers carried no quota.[^16] ### Pound Ridge Halle moved to Pound Ridge, New York in 1929; the marker places his first purchase, a house on Trinity Pass Road, in February 1929.[^1][^3][^17] A 2019 article gives the number of houses he purchased as 33 and the number of local men he employed renovating them as more than 60.[^7] The school's archive states that he purchased more than thirty houses and that thirteen of his homes are on the National Register of Historic Places.[^1] The National Park Service record for the Pound Ridge Historic District lists Halle among its architects, followed by "et al."[^18] A real estate listing history gives his collaborators as the designer Walter Gillooly and the craftsman Herman P. Scheid and dates his move to 1928.[^19] The school's archive says Halle brought a number of European Jewish exiles to Pound Ridge and gave them work restoring vintage homes, and that he provided support to struggling farmers during the Depression.[^1] The Old Mill, a property he renovated and used for entertaining, housed his collection of American folk art, and a farm where he stored his collection of American and English antiques was among his holdings.[^1] The marker credits him with helping construct the elementary school and the fire department.[^3] Halle hosted an annual fall barbecue on his property for the University in Exile, its families and New School staff. The New School Archives holds two silent 16mm home movies of the event, dated probably 1935 and 1937, made at his residence known as the White House and at the Old Mill.[^1] His letter of invitation to Albert Einstein for the gathering in 1938 described "the annual gathering at our home in Poundridge, Westchester County, where Dr. Alvin Johnson with the staff, professors and trustees of the 'University in Exile' with their families come together for a pleasant day in the country at its most beautiful time to lunch on barbecued lamb in an old mill over a waterfall," and named Saturday, October 8. Einstein declined, citing poor health.[^1] In 1939 Halle became owner of the little old schoolhouse in exchange for giving the Pound Ridge school board the land on which the elementary school now stands.[^17] ### Jacob Epstein and the Einstein bust The Institute for Advanced Study holds a bronze bust of Albert Einstein by Jacob Epstein, in the Common Room of Fuld Hall. Its catalogue record states that the bust was sculpted from life in 1933 in Cromer, Norfolk, England, for Hiram J. Halle, who was "a close friend and financial supporter of Epstein," and that it passed to Halle's nephew Joseph Halle Schaffner, a friend of Harold Linder, who left a life interest to his wife and to the Institute; on his death his widow waived her interest and the bust passed to the Institute for Advanced Study.[^20] ### Family Halle's great-nephew and the great-nephew's sister donated the two barbecue films to the New School in 2015; the letters that accompany them remained with the donors.[^1] A 1918 obituary of the Chicago businessman Joseph Schaffner states that in 1888 he married Miss Sarah Halle of Cleveland and that three children were born of the union, all living in Chicago.[^21] The Pound Ridge Library's later wing contains the Joseph Halle Schaffner Room.[^17] The 1930 to 1931 edition of Who's Who in America lists Rita S. Halle, writer, as the wife of Louis J. Halle of New York City, married September 23, 1908, with children Rita, Louis J. and Roger, and a summer address at Poundridge, New York.[^22] A Louis J. Halle Jr. published Birds against Men in 1938 and River of Ruins in 1941. Records found do not establish whether the Louis J. Halle of the Who's Who entry was Hiram Halle's brother or whether his son Louis J. Halle Jr. is Hiram Halle's nephew.[^22] ### Death and estate The library's history states that Halle worked with local artisans to restore and renovate Pound Ridge from his arrival there until his death in 1944.[^17] The trustees of his estate donated the schoolhouse to the newly formed Pound Ridge Library Association in 1950.[^17] The library's history records that "It was her idea to make the library a memorial to Hiram J. Halle," referring to Ruth M. Knight, who pledged funds to operate the library for its first three years and whose name the 1955 reading room bears.[^17] [^1]: New School Archives and Special Collections, "Hiram Halle home movies of annual barbecue for University in Exile at Pound Ridge," Collection NA-0008-01, biographical note, scope and contents, and immediate source of acquisition. https://aspace.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/256 [^2]: Histories of The New School, "University in Exile." https://histories.newschool.edu/histories/university-exile [^3]: Marker inscription "Hiram Halle (1867-1944)," Pound Ridge Historical Society and Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, erected April 28, 2019, and the commentary "Regarding Hiram Halle (1867-1944)" submitted by Jerry Klinger, Historical Marker Database. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=134062 [^4]: U.S. Patent 773,287, "Type-writing machine," Hiram J. Halle of New York, assignor to Elliott-Fisher Company, filed November 10, 1903, patented October 25, 1904; U.S. Patent 804,720, "Bill or statement blank," filed March 14, 1905, patented November 14, 1905. https://patents.google.com/patent/US773287A/en and https://patents.google.com/patent/US804720A/en [^5]: Honeywell UOP, "A Revolution in Transportation," UOP History. https://uop.honeywell.com/en/uop-history/a-revolution-in-transportation [^6]: U.S. Patent 1,900,105, "Process and apparatus for treating hydrocarbons," Hiram J. Halle of New York, assignor to Universal Oil Products Company of Chicago, Illinois, patented March 7, 1933. https://patents.google.com/patent/US1900105A/en [^7]: Dave Zucker, "Take a Tour of Pound Ridge's Historic Hiram Halle Homes," Westchester Magazine, March 20, 2019. https://westchestermagazine.com/life-style/take-a-tour-of-pound-ridges-historic-hiram-halle-homes/ [^8]: Honeywell UOP, "The Peace of 1931," UOP History. https://uop.honeywell.com/en/uop-history/the-peace-of-1931 [^9]: "Business: Sedalia Sequel," Time, July 20, 1936. https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,771866,00.html [^10]: Daniel Morris Bessner, The Night Watchman: Hans Speier and the Making of the American National Security State (Duke University dissertation, 2013), note 16. https://hdl.handle.net/10161/7101 [^11]: Mary Shustack, article on the Halle barns and houses in Pound Ridge, photographs by Tim Lee. https://www.wagmag.com/?p=7705 [^12]: Alvin Johnson, Pioneer's Progress (New York: Viking Press, 1952), p. 340. [^13]: Peter M. Rutkoff and William B. Scott, New School: A History of The New School for Social Research (New York: Free Press, 1986), p. 92. [^14]: Bessner, The Night Watchman, p. 84 and note 16. https://hdl.handle.net/10161/7101 [^15]: Jerry Klinger, "He found ways to obtain U.S. visas for persecuted European Jews," San Diego Jewish World, April 29, 2019. https://www.sdjewishworld.com/?p=121004 [^16]: DigitalNC, "Van Eeden books now online." https://www.digitalnc.org/blog/van-eeden-books-now-online/ [^17]: Pound Ridge Library, "Visit," history of the library building. https://poundridgelibrary.org/visit/ [^18]: National Park Service, National Register Information System, record 85003196, Pound Ridge Historic District, architects and significant names fields. https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/85003196 [^19]: Brownstoner, listing history for 3 Old Mill River Road, Pound Ridge. https://www.brownstoner.com/upstate/pound-ridge-ny-hiram-j-halle-3-old-mill-river-road-1930s-colonial-revival-barn/ [^20]: Institute for Advanced Study, Digital Collections, "Bust of Albert Einstein," Jacob Epstein, description field. https://albert.ias.edu/20.500.12111/1500 [^21]: Obituary of Joseph Schaffner, Daily Jewish Courier, April 21, 1918, Foreign Language Press Survey, Newberry Library. https://flps.newberry.org/id/5423972_10_1_1095 [^22]: Who's Who in America, vol. 16, 1930-1931 (Chicago: A. N. Marquis), entry "HALLE, Rita S."; Louis J. Halle Jr., Birds against Men (1938) and River of Ruins (New York: Henry Holt, 1941), title page. --- *The Info Web has an MCP server for agents at https://theinfoweb.org/mcp (streamable HTTP, no auth): search by meaning, exact text, source or date, and follow typed, footnoted connections. Setup and the same tools over GET: https://theinfoweb.org/llms.txt*