Henry Clay Folger - Folgerpedia

On June 11, 1930, Henry Clay Folger, American CEO of Standard Oil and founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library, died at the age of 72. From the article:

"The Folger Shakespeare Library
Henry and Emily began scouting for sites for a permanent repository for their collection in the early 1920s. Among the potential sites were Amherst, New York City, and Stratford-upon-Avon, before they decided on a plot of land near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., discovered during a layover at Union Station as they traveled to Hot Springs. Henry spent nine years purchasing the townhouses on the plot, known as Grant's row, which would have to be demolished before construction of the Library began.

Henry hired Paul Philippe Cret and Alexander Trowbridge as architects. The Folgers requested that the Elizabethan theater be placed at the east end of the building, farthest away from the Capitol. This theater was initially used for academic lectures, rather than theatrical productions. Henry also hired sculptor John Gregory to design the Shakespearean reliefs that decorate the building's facade.

Henry was alive for the laying of the building's cornerstone, but died two years before the opening of the Library. Upon Henry's death, the bulk of his estate was bequeathed to the Library in trust. His will also specified that a board of Trustees based at Amherst College administer the Library in perpetuity, and on October 31, 1930, the Trustees received the title to the Shakespeare Collection, as well as the real estate deed of the Library.

Later life and death
In May 1930, Henry was admitted to St. John's Hospital in Brooklyn for surgery on an enlarged prostate. He continued to work on the Library's construction while recovering. He later had a second operation to remove his prostate; soon after this operation, he died on June 11, 1830. His ashes were placed in a "mortuary urn niche" in what is now the Paster Reading Room, behind the bronze tablet engraved with To the Glory of William Shakespeare and the Greater Glory of God, flanked by his and his wife's painted portraits by Frank O. Salisbury."