John D. MacArthur
Template:Short description Template:Confused Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Template:External media
John Donald MacArthur (March 6, 1897 – January 6, 1978) was an American insurance magnate, real estate investor and philanthropist who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, benefactor in the MacArthur Fellowships.
Early life
John Donald MacArthur was born on March 6, 1897, in Pittston, Pennsylvania, as the seventh child to Georginna and Reverend William Telfer MacArthur.<ref name="McGoun, William E. 1998, p. 167">McGoun, William E., Southeast Florida Pioneers: The Palm and Treasure Coasts, 1998, Sarasota: Pineapple Press, p. 167</ref><ref name="scranton">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="tampa">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Open access</ref><ref name="nytimes">Template:Cite news</ref> He moved from Pittston to Chicago, Illinois, at the age of five.<ref name="scranton"/> He and his many siblings grew up in poverty, the children of an itinerant Baptist preacher and his resourceful wife. His father went through many evangelical trainings, moving his family all around the country, from Chicago to Nyack, New York, to Springfield, Massachusetts.<ref name="scranton"/> His sister-in-law was the actress Helen Hayes. His brother, American playwright and Academy Award winning screenwriter Charles MacArthur, co-authored the play The Front Page. John MacArthur dropped out of school after eighth grade and became a salesman.<ref name="nytimes"/>
Career
World War I
MacArthur joined the U.S. Navy and then the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I.<ref name="theman">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="obit">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Open access</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was medically discharged from service.<ref name="tampa"/>
Insurance career
MacArthur made his fortune in the mail-order insurance business.<ref name="tampa"/> He acquired the Bankers Life and Casualty Company, an insurance company defeated by the Great Depression, in 1935 after borrowing $2,500,<ref name="tampa"/><ref name="nytimes"/> then went on to build a business empire by acquiring many small insurance corporations. In the 1950s he signed famed broadcaster Paul Harvey as his company's radio spokesperson.Template:Citation needed
Real estate investments in Florida
MacArthur also increased his vast fortune by heavily and lucratively investing in Florida real estate. By the time of his death, he owned 100,000 acres of real estate in Florida.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1954 for $5.5 million MacArthur bought Template:Convert of land in northern Palm Beach County originally owned by Harry Seymor Kelsey and later by Sir Harry Oakes. It included most of today's Lake Park, North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Palm Beach Shores.<ref name="McGoun, William E. 1998, p. 167"/> For many years, MacArthur conducted his business affairs from a corner table in the Colonnades Beach Hotel coffee shop, in Singer Island in Palm Beach Shores, where he and his wife lived in an apartment above the bar, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and the Lake Worth Lagoon.<ref name="COLONNADES">Lowery, Fred, "Celebrity Days Remembered As Colonnades Hotel Is Razed", South Florida Sun-Sentinel, February 17, 1990</ref>
Personal life
MacArthur first married the former Louise Ingalls and had two children: a son, U.S. businessman and philanthropist J. Roderick (1920–1984); and a daughter, Virginia. The couple divorced in 1937.<ref name="nytimes"/> In 1938 MacArthur married his secretary, Catherine T. MacArthur (née Hyland),<ref name="nytimes"/> who for decades intimately involved herself in the management of his companies, and after whom his charitable foundation is co-named.
John R. MacArthur, the president of Harper's Magazine and son of J. Roderick MacArthur, is a grandson of John D. MacArthur.Template:Citation needed
Death
On January 6, 1978, he died of pancreatic cancer at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="nytimes"/>
Legacy
John D. MacArthur Beach State Park
John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in North Palm Beach, Florida, opened to the public in 1989.Template:Citation needed
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest (when ranked by asset value) private foundations in the United States.Template:Citation needed
Awards and honors
In 1977, MacArthur received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. The award was presented to him by Awards Council member Helen Hayes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
References
Further reading
- Template:Cite book Biography of John MacArthur.
- Kosar, Kevin R. "The Reluctant Philanthropist: John D. MacArthur". The American, February 13, 2008.
- Template:Cite book Biography of John MacArthur: Empire builder, reluctant philanthropist, relentless adversary.
- McGoun, William E., Southeast Florida Pioneers: The Palm and Treasure Coasts, 1998, Sarasota: Pineapple Press, chapter 27. Compares the lives of MacArthur and Arthur Vining Davis, another heavy investor in Florida real estate.
External links
Template:Charles MacArthur Template:MacArthur Foundation Template:Authority control
- 1897 births
- 1978 deaths
- 20th-century American businesspeople
- 20th-century Baptists
- 20th-century American philanthropists
- American businesspeople in the insurance industry
- Baptists from Florida
- Baptists from Illinois
- Baptists from Pennsylvania
- Businesspeople from Chicago
- MacArthur family (Chicago)
- People from Palm Beach County, Florida
- People from Pittston, Pennsylvania
- Philanthropists from Illinois
- United States Navy personnel of World War I
- Royal Canadian Air Force personnel