Samuel B. Mosher was born on October 13, 1892 in Carthage, NY and grew up in Los Angeles, CA.
He graduated from the University of California at Berkley in 1916 with a degree in agriculture. He attempted a citrus orchard, but it wasn’t successful. Oil was discovered in Long Beach in June 1921, and Sam wanted to cash in on this. He sent away for a government pamphlet on the method of extracting oil and gasoline, borrowed $4,000 from his mother, and founded his new company, Signal Oil and Gas Co., that eventually became a huge enterprise. The area of Long Beach called Signal Hill soon became a forest of oil wells and derricks. The Signal Oil and Gas Co. thrived and Sam was well on his way to an incredibly successful career in the oil industry. During WWII he was a director of the National Petroleum War Council where he met Norman Meyers.
It was about this time that Sam Mosher got involved with American President Line (APL) and the idea came to set up a Mexican cargo airline called Aero-Azteca, where Mr. Mosher approached Robert Prescott to buy some airplanes for this new venture. The original deal fell through, and Robert Prescott pitched the idea to Mr. Mosher about starting their own airline. And the rest is history.
Mosher put up half the money, and Robert Prescott and 9 of his AVG buddies put up the other half, and on June 25, 1945, National Skyways Freight Corporation (shortly after officially changed to The Flying Tiger Line) was founded. Sam Mosher was instrumental in the financing of the company and remained with Flying Tigers for 22 years until 1967 when he abruptly resigned stating that he did not approve of changes in policy and personnel.
He had many other financial interests, including various cargo shipping lines, the Garret Corporation, specializing in aerospace hardware, and even Laura Scudder, the potato chip company. After HIs time at Tigers, he branched out to radio and television broadcasting as well as Los Angeles sports teams (the Angels baseball and the Rams football). However, when he retired, he returned to his first love, agriculture, and ran a very lucrative 4,500 acre farm near Santa Barbara, CA that specialized in producing millions of orchids each year.
Samuel B. Mosher died on August 4, 1970 and is buried in Santa Barbara, CA.