Jack C. Massey
Born
Jack Carroll Massey

June 15, 1904
Tennille, Georgia, US
Died (aged 85)
Palm Beach, Florida, US
EducationUniversity of Florida
Occupation(s)Venture capitalist, entrepreneur
Spouses
  • Elizabeth Polak
  • Alyne Queener
Children1

Jack Carroll Massey (June 15, 1904 – February 15, 1990) was an American venture capitalist and entrepreneur who owned Kentucky Fried Chicken, co-founded the Hospital Corporation of America, and owned one of the largest franchisees of Wendy's.[1][2] He was the first American businessman to take three different companies public.

Early life

Massey was born in 1904 in Tennille, Georgia.[1] He graduated with a degree in pharmacy from the University of Florida.[3]

Business career

Massey began his business career working as a delivery boy in his uncle's drugstore.[1][3] He then received a pharmacist's license when he was 19 and bought his first drugstore when he was 25.[1][4] He built the store into a pharmacy chain, selling it six years later.[1][4] He founded Massey Surgical Supply in 1930.[5] He sold it to the A.S. Aloe division of the Brunswick Corporation for $1 million.[1][4]

Massey acquired Kentucky Fried Chicken from its founder, Harland Sanders, for $2 million in 1964.[1][2][4] With John Y. Brown Jr., Massey embarked on a rapid expansion program, growing the business to approximately 3,500 franchises and grossing $700 million in annual revenue.[1] Seven years later he sold the company to Heublein for $239 million.[5]

In 1968, Massey co-founded Hospital Corporation of America with Thomas F. Frist Sr. and Thomas F. Frist Jr.[1] in Nashville, Tennessee. Massey hired the Nashville law firm Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP to assist with the company's incorporation and later complete many healthcare mergers and acquisitions for several decades.[6] The company became the nation's largest chain of for-profit hospitals and Massey left active management in 1978.[1]

Massey transformed Winners Corporation, one of the largest franchisees of Wendy's hamburger outlets into a major fast-food franchise operation.[1][4] Finally, he listed Volunteer Capital Corporation (a holding company of Wendy's Restaurant fast food franchises) on the New York Stock Exchange.[1]

Massey was an initial investor in the Corrections Corporation of America in the 1980s.[7]

Philanthropy

Massey was a donor to Belmont University, where the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business was named in his honor.[1][2] He also supported Vanderbilt University and the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville.[3] His alma mater, University of Florida, named the Jack C. Massey Professorship Fund for him.[4]

Massey was the founder of the Saint Thomas - Midtown Hospital in Nashville.[1] He was also a donor to the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville.[3] Additionally, he made contributions to the Nashville and Palm Beach chapters of Planned Parenthood.[3]

Personal life and death

His first wife, Elizabeth Polak Massey, died in 1968.[8] He later married Alyne Queener.[1] He had a daughter, Barbara Massey Rogers and three grandchildren.[1] He also had an adopted son Don who pre-deceased him.

Massey resided in Nashville.[3] He was the owner of "403 feet of oceanfront property directly in front of Mar-a-Lago" in Palm Beach, Florida, which Donald Trump purchased for $2 million.[3]

Massey was a member of the Belle Meade Country Club in Belle Meade, Tennessee; the Everglades Club and the Bath and Tennis Club in Palm Beach, Florida; the Bathing Corporation and the Meadow Club in Southampton, New York; and the Links Club in New York City.[3]

Massey died of pneumonia on February 15, 1990, at the Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, at age 85.[5] His funeral was held at the Immanuel Baptist Church in Belle Meade, and he was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.[9] His obituary in The Palm Beach Daily News called him "a legend in American business."[3]

Bibliography

  • Bill Carey, Master of the Big Board: The Life, Times and Business of Jack Massey (Cumberland House Publishing, 2005)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Glenn Fowler, Jack C. Massey, an Entrepreneur In Hospitals and Food, Dies at 85, The New York Times, February 16, 1990
  2. 1 2 3 Belmont University biography Archived copy
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Business Legend Jack Massey Dies". The Palm Beach Daily News. February 16, 1990. pp. 1, 4. Retrieved December 17, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "University of Florida Foundation". Archived from the original on 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
  5. 1 2 3 "Fried Chicken King Dies at 85". The Los Angeles Times. February 15, 1990. p. P3. Retrieved December 17, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "The HCA effect: How the hospital giant helped Nashville grow with it". HCA Healthcare. 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  7. ↑ Harmon L. Wray, Jr. (1989). "Cells for Sale". Southern Changes: The Journal of the Southern Regional Council. 8 (3). Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  8. ↑ Link to Gravestone, Find a Grave for Elizabeth Polak Massey
  9. ↑ "Entrepreneur Jack Massey dead at 75". The Tennessean. February 16, 1990. pp. 1, 8. Retrieved December 17, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
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