Alfred Nobel

A.K.A the Swedish chemist who invented dynamite, but he also invented the Nobel Prize. I know what you're thinking "How did he go from dynamite to something as honorable as a Noble Prize?" So I'll tell you. Alfred's brother Ludvig died while visiting Cannes. Mistakenly the newspapers in France published that it was Alfred who had died. "The Merchant of Death" was how they titled Alfred when he had "died". As you already guessed, Alfred was not pleased at how he will remembered.

When his time actually came, in his last will he established the Nobel Prizes to be awarded annually to anyone who deserved it. He spent most of his resources creating the first five Nobel Prizes.

Check out every Nobel Prize winner here.

 And that's how the Nobel prize was made. I guess you can say his reputation just "blew up".