Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, succeeded at almost everything

he did, and not just succeeded, he succeeded in spectacular fashion as a mining executive

in Australian China, as a humanitarian in Europe, and as a politician in the United States.

But he's best known to history for his role in one failure, the Great Depression, at

decade-long economic collapse that impoverished millions in America and across the world.

He didn't cause it, and he made superhuman efforts to reverse it, but no matter how hard

he tried, he couldn't stop it.

If a single individual could have, it might have been this remarkable man.

Born in rural Iowa in 1874, Hoover was orphaned at the age of nine.

His father, a blacksmith, died when Hoover was just six.

His mother, a quaker preacher, three years later.

When happy, sullen, and painfully shy as a teenager, he came into his own at Stanford University,

then tuition-free.

Hoover was in his university's very first graduating class, his field of study being geology.

On graduation, he talked himself into a job with a prominent English mining company.

They sent him to the Australian Outback.

Conditions were so harsh and diseases so rampant, it was almost a suicide mission.

But young Hoover was not deterred.

He reorganized the company's minds, made them much more profitable and scouted for new ones.

A gold mine he acquired largely on his own initiative turned out to be one of the richest

in the world.

He was on track to become fabulously wealthy when World War I broke out and he abruptly

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