Thomas Dudley Cabot and Virginia Wellington Cabot (1897-1995 and 1900-1997)
Tom Cabot built a billion-dollar business from holdings in West Virginia Natural Gas, a company which produces carbon black, a substance widely used in making ink, paint, tires and other products.
Tom Cabot taught flying and aerial combat in World War I. In 1944, he chaired a commission to prepare plans for Logan Airport.
An adventurer, he climbed and mapped inaccessible reaches of South America. He sailed to the Caribbean with friends in search of buried treasure.
Cabot endowed a dozen Harvard chairs later in his life and served for years on the governing boards of Harvard, Radcliffe, and M.I.T.
With his wife Virginia, he was among the first to promote downhill skiing and white-water canoeing in the United States. The Grumman Company asked him to design a canoe to be built of aluminum; Cabot’s design is closely followed in most of the canoes sold today.
Virginia was an experienced mountaineer who made the first ascent of Mount Magog in the Canadia Rockies.
The Cabots preserved fifty of Maine’s outer islands and in 1970 helped to form the nonprofit Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
The Cabot’s home in Sharon was named Chalet Rossli, and they considered it their retirement retreat. In 1993 the Cabot Skyline was dedicated by the Friends of the Wapack Trail in honor of Tom Cabot.
The Cabots established the Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation in 1992. The mission of the Foundation is to benefit mankind through responsible philanthropy, and to inspire, educate, engage, and unify their descendants in making a difference.
In 2001, the Cabot New Hampshire Land Trust placed 211 acres of land in Sharon into permanent conservation easement with the New England Forestry Foundation.