Edwin Tobias Earl (May 30, 1858 – January 2, 1919) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher and philanthropist.

Edwin T. Earl was born on a fruit ranch near Red Bluff, California on May 30, 1858.

In 1890, he invented the refrigerator car to transport fruits to the East Coast of the United States.

In 1901, he made a donation to the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California to start the Earl Lectures.

[2] For more than a hundred years, it has featured distinguished guest speakers like Theodore Roosevelt, Maya Angelou, Harry Emerson Fosdick and Cecil Williams.