 Seymour Horace Knox I ( April 1861 – May 17 , 1915 ) , was a Buffalo , New York businessman who made his fortune in five @-@ and @-@ dime stores . He merged his more than 100 stores with those of his first cousins , Frank Winfield Woolworth and Charles Woolworth , to form the F. W. Woolworth Company . He went on to become a philanthropist and was the first president of the United Way of America .
Knox was born in Buffalo , New York , the son of a Scottish immigrant , John Knox . He attended the University of Michigan , where he was a member of the Sigma Chi F