Henry Salvatori

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Henry Salvatori (March 28, 1901 – July 7, 1997) was an American geophysicist, businessman, philanthropist, and political activist.

Salvatori was born in Rome, Italy, and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1906. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1923 and a master's degree in physics from Columbia University in 1926. In 1930, he joined Geophysical Service Incorporated, but he left in 1933 to found Western Geophysical.

Western Geophysical prospered, allowing him to begin a long involvement in philanthropy and conservative political causes. In the 1950s, he was a founding stockholder of National Review magazine. In 1960, he sold Western Geophysical to Litton Industries, allowing him to devote more time to politics. In 1962, he convinced the staunchly conservative Joe Shell, Richard M. Nixon's intraparty rival for governor, to endorse Nixon in the general election in order to promote party unity. Nixon, however, lost to the Democrat Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, Sr. In 1964, Salvatori chaired Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign in California. He convinced Goldwater to allow Ronald Reagan to give a televised fundraising speech entitled "A Time for Choosing", the speech that launched Reagan's political career. Later, Salvatori was one of Reagan's initial supporters for governor of California, having served as state finance chairman for his 1966 campaign and as part of Reagan's "kitchen cabinet". He was a long-time financial supporter of the Heritage Foundation and the Claremont Institute, two conservative think tanks.

Salvatori and his wife, the former Grace Ford, also made significant contributions to civic and educational institutions, including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Claremont McKenna College, the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, Pepperdine University, and Boston University.

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