Theodore Gary

Starting with a small phone company in Macon, Missouri, Theodore Gary amassed an American and international empire of formerly independent telephone companies including Automatic Electric, which later became GTE. He served as the president of the USITA (United States Independent Telephone Association) in 1908, and was instrumental in lobbying the U.S. Congress to legally recognize the telephone as a common carrier, ensuring that big monopolies couldn’t legally block independent lines from interconnecting.