Lucius Ordway
Co-founder 1902Background
Lucius Ordway was a Saint Paul, Minnesota merchant whose primary business was plumbing supply before he became the financial backbone of 3M's early survival. He was not a technical innovator or a mining expert; he was a businessman whose combination of capital resources and fundamental belief in the company's potential led him to repeatedly inject personal funds into a venture that more cautious investors had given up on. Ordway's decision to move from passive investor to active financial patron between 1902 and 1914 — committing an estimated $200,000 of personal capital over twelve years — was the single act most responsible for 3M's survival through its founding crisis.
Role at 3M Company
Lucius Ordway was born in 1849 and established himself as a successful plumbing supply merchant in Saint Paul, Minnesota before becoming one of five co-founders of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company in 1902. While his four co-founders progressively reduced their involvement as the company struggled through its failed mining venture and difficult early manufacturing years, Ordway remained committed, providing crucial personal capital injections that prevented bankruptcy on multiple occasions between 1902 and 1914. His patient financial support — combined with his genuine belief in William Lester McKnight's management philosophy — created the conditions that allowed 3M to survive its early crisis, develop its first successful products, and establish the innovation culture that would eventually produce Scotch tape, Post-it Notes, and thousands of other globally recognized products. Ordway died in 1927, long before the full magnitude of his contribution to American industrial history was apparent.