Archibald Bush

{{Short description|American businessman}}

Archibald Granville Bush (March 5, 1887 – January 16, 1966){{cite book | author = Stew Thornley | title = Six Feet Under: A Graveyard Guide to Minnesota | publisher = Minnesota Historical Society Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 0-87351-514-5 | pages = 125}} was an American businessman primarily involved with 3M.

Bush was born in Granite Falls, Minnesota, and worked on the family farm as a youth, but his hay fever encouraged him to move to Duluth and study business.{{cite book | author = Waldemar A. Nielsen | title = Golden Donors: A New Anatomy of the Great Foundations | publisher = Transaction Publishers | year = 2002 | isbn = 0-7658-0912-5 | pages = 377–379}} In 1914, he was hired as sales manager for the then-struggling 3M. He was working under the management of William L. McKnight and he helped the firm rise from near-bankruptcy to large-scale profitability.{{cite book | author = Clifford E. Clark | title = Minnesota in a Century of Change: The State and Its People Since 1900 | url = https://archive.org/details/minnesotaincentu00clar | url-access = registration | publisher = Minnesota Historical Society Press | year = 1989 | isbn = 0-87351-238-3 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/minnesotaincentu00clar/page/228 228]}} He remained the sales manager for some decades. In the late 1940s, he was elected executive vice-president. From 1949 to his death in 1966, he was chair of the company's executive committee. He purchased considerable 3M stock early on, and made a fortune during the company's turnaround. He used part of his estimated $200 million fortune to establish the charitable Bush Foundation in 1953, with the remainder of his fortune going to the foundation upon his death. He died in 1966 and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Saint Paul.