J. Roderick MacArthur
Encyclopedia
John Roderick MacArthur was a U.S. businessman and philanthropist. The J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation, a philanthropic organization interested in Civil Liberties in the United States, and the MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern University School of Law are named after him. He is the son of John D. MacArthur
who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
to divorce and two years later married Catherine T. Hyland
.
Rod MacArthur attended Rollins College
in Florida
and worked as a stringer for the Associated Press
in Mexico
. During World War II
he joined the American Field Service
, serving with the French Army
in the ambulance corp., and he participated in the campaign that liberated France
.
He worked for his father in the insurance industry before they became estranged. In 1973, while working with a company that sold ceramic collectable plates, MacArthur noticed that the collectible ceramic market was chaotic. He started the Bradford Exchange
which by the time of his death sold about 90% of all the collectable plates in the world. Often credited with becoming "a self-made millionaire", in actuality MacArthur had some financial backing from his father, although the idea, business plan and effort were indeed Rod MacArthur's own. In 1975, once the exchange was successful, his eccentric father claimed that Bradford Exchange was his business and John D. MacArthur seized the Bradford Exchange's customer lists and put the on hand inventory under lock and key. J. Roderick MacArthur then organized a "private posse" that broke into his father's corporate headquarters in Chicago
and hustled the inventory into a waiting fleet of trucks. MacArthur inherited virtually no money from his father.
Rod MacArthur married Christiane L'Entendart in Paris in 1947 and had a daughter and two sons, one of them the publisher and president of Harper's Magazine
, John R. "Rick" MacArthur
.
Rod Macarthur died December 15, 1984 at age 63 from pancreatic cancer
. He is buried in Graceland Cemetery
in Chicago. His epitaph, written in English using Greek letters, is ονε φοοτ ιν φαιριελανδ ("one foot in fairyland
").
. At that point, John D. MacArthur was worth in excess of $1 billion and was reportedly one of the three richest men in the United States. John D. MacArthur left ninety-two percent of his estate to begin the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The composition of the Foundation's first Board of Director's, per John D. MacArthur's will, included J. Roderick MacArthur, Catherine T. MacArthur
(his second wife), three officers of Bankers Life and Casualty
, and Radio Commentator Paul Harvey
. John D. MacArthur grandson, and Rod MacArthur's son, John R. "Rick" MacArthur
has charged publicly:
"The idea behind the foundation was as a tax dodge that he thought would allow his business executives to run his company forever. He clearly didn't understand the tax laws."
In any event, J. Roderick Macarthur quickly clashed with the Board of his father's foundation. The Bankers Life executives and Paul Harvey held conservative views regarding the structure and size of the board, its purpose and the sale of the business.
Largely due to Rod MacArthur's efforts, the board was expanded to thirteen members in 1979. The new members had backgrounds from academia, science, government, and business. This board now openly and publicly fought over the grants that were made to favorite board member causes, often trading votes among themselves. Even though there was support for each board member's causes an extremely bitter and public argument erupted between Rod MacArthur and former U.S. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon
over board grants to a number of conservative causes Simon supported. Eventually Simon resigned from the board.
Rod MacArthur continued to be unhappy with the foundation and its management. He launched two lawsuits, the first in February 1984 against his fellow board members charging in essence that board members were acting as executives of Bankers Life and were looking out for their own best interest and not the needs of the foundation. His suit also alleged that the foundation was not managing its assets properly. MacArthur further claimed that high fees were being paid to board members for their foundation work and he felt that Bankers Life was not being managed well and had lost value. He requested that the foundation be either dissolved or that the court appoint a receiver to manage and sell Bankers Life.
After Rod MacArthur blocked the sale of the company for $116 million less, the board found a buyer for Bankers Life that was willing to pay $384 million for the company. Although this removed the Bankers Life issue from the suit, there were still Rod MacArthur's allegations that board members and key foundation executives were profiting at the expense of the foundation.
Due to his terminal illness however, Rod MacArthur settled the suit shortly before his death.
Rod MacArthur made two further lasting and important contributions while on the board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. First, he is the person who pushed the Board to offer the famous MacArthur fellowships, also called "Genius Grants". Second, in 1980 at the urging of his son John R. "Rick" MacArthur, then 23, Rod persuaded the Board to partner in creating and funding a Harper's Magazine Foundation to acquire and operate the magazine of the same name. This new entity acquired Harper's Magazine
(which was then losing nearly $2 million per year and was on the verge of ceasing publication) for $250,000. Rick MacArthur eventually took over the foundation that owned Harper's.
Two years before John D. MacArthur died and set up his foundation, Rod MacArthur used his substantial fortune from the Bradford Exchange, to form his own foundation. As of 2004, the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation had $22 million in assets and supports liberal causes, including the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., and the J. Roderick MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern University School of Law
Northwestern University School of Law
. In the philanthropic world, the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation is known colloquially as "Little Mac," and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is known as "Big Mac".
John D. MacArthur
John Donald MacArthur was an American businessman and philanthropist who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, benefactor in the MacArthur Fellowships.-Early life:...
who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Biography
J. Roderick MacArthur, known as Rod MacArthur, was born December 21, 1920 to the former Louise Ingals and John D. MacArthur. The couple also had a daughter, Virginia MacArthur. In 1926 John D. MacArthur traveled to MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
to divorce and two years later married Catherine T. Hyland
Catherine T. MacArthur
Catherine T. MacArthur was the wife of U.S. businessman and philanthropist John D. MacArthur and was an active participant in his businesses and philanthropies. One of the ten largest philanthropic foundations in the United States, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is named after...
.
Rod MacArthur attended Rollins College
Rollins College
Rollins College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Winter Park, Florida , along the shores of Lake Virginia....
in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and worked as a stringer for the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he joined the American Field Service
AFS Intercultural Programs
AFS Intercultural Programs was established in 1915 by A. Piatt Andrew, a onetime economics professor at Harvard University and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury...
, serving with the French Army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
in the ambulance corp., and he participated in the campaign that liberated France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
He worked for his father in the insurance industry before they became estranged. In 1973, while working with a company that sold ceramic collectable plates, MacArthur noticed that the collectible ceramic market was chaotic. He started the Bradford Exchange
Bradford Exchange
The Bradford Exchange is a producer and marketer of collectible goods. Now part of the Bradford Group, it was founded in 1973 as The Bradford Gallery of Collector's Plates by J. Roderick MacArthur. The company created its first live price quotation market in 1983, but increasingly turned to...
which by the time of his death sold about 90% of all the collectable plates in the world. Often credited with becoming "a self-made millionaire", in actuality MacArthur had some financial backing from his father, although the idea, business plan and effort were indeed Rod MacArthur's own. In 1975, once the exchange was successful, his eccentric father claimed that Bradford Exchange was his business and John D. MacArthur seized the Bradford Exchange's customer lists and put the on hand inventory under lock and key. J. Roderick MacArthur then organized a "private posse" that broke into his father's corporate headquarters in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and hustled the inventory into a waiting fleet of trucks. MacArthur inherited virtually no money from his father.
Rod MacArthur married Christiane L'Entendart in Paris in 1947 and had a daughter and two sons, one of them the publisher and president of Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, John R. "Rick" MacArthur
John R. MacArthur
John R. "Rick" MacArthur is an American journalist and author of books about US politics. He is the president of Harper's Magazine.- Biography :...
.
Rod Macarthur died December 15, 1984 at age 63 from pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
. He is buried in Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian era cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Irving Park Road...
in Chicago. His epitaph, written in English using Greek letters, is ονε φοοτ ιν φαιριελανδ ("one foot in fairyland
Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Many of her works had charming illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Some of her correspondence has also been published...
").
Philanthropic endeavors
Father and son reconciled before John D. MacArthur died on January 6, 1978, (also of pancreatic cancer, the disease that would kill his son six years later) and he named Rod MacArthur to the board of his foundationFoundation (charity)
A foundation is a legal categorization of nonprofit organizations that will typically either donate funds and support to other organizations, or provide the source of funding for its own charitable purposes....
. At that point, John D. MacArthur was worth in excess of $1 billion and was reportedly one of the three richest men in the United States. John D. MacArthur left ninety-two percent of his estate to begin the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The composition of the Foundation's first Board of Director's, per John D. MacArthur's will, included J. Roderick MacArthur, Catherine T. MacArthur
Catherine T. MacArthur
Catherine T. MacArthur was the wife of U.S. businessman and philanthropist John D. MacArthur and was an active participant in his businesses and philanthropies. One of the ten largest philanthropic foundations in the United States, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is named after...
(his second wife), three officers of Bankers Life and Casualty
Bankers Life and Casualty
Established in 1879 in Chicago, Bankers Life and Casualty Company focuses on the insurance needs of the retirement market. The nationwide company, a subsidiary of CNO Financial Group, Inc...
, and Radio Commentator Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey Aurandt , better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated, at...
. John D. MacArthur grandson, and Rod MacArthur's son, John R. "Rick" MacArthur
John R. MacArthur
John R. "Rick" MacArthur is an American journalist and author of books about US politics. He is the president of Harper's Magazine.- Biography :...
has charged publicly:
"The idea behind the foundation was as a tax dodge that he thought would allow his business executives to run his company forever. He clearly didn't understand the tax laws."
In any event, J. Roderick Macarthur quickly clashed with the Board of his father's foundation. The Bankers Life executives and Paul Harvey held conservative views regarding the structure and size of the board, its purpose and the sale of the business.
Largely due to Rod MacArthur's efforts, the board was expanded to thirteen members in 1979. The new members had backgrounds from academia, science, government, and business. This board now openly and publicly fought over the grants that were made to favorite board member causes, often trading votes among themselves. Even though there was support for each board member's causes an extremely bitter and public argument erupted between Rod MacArthur and former U.S. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon
William E. Simon
William Edward Simon was a businessman, a Secretary of Treasury of the U.S. for three years, and a philanthropist. He became the 63rd Secretary of the Treasury on May 8, 1974, during the Nixon administration. He was reappointed by President Ford and served until 1977. Outside of government, he was...
over board grants to a number of conservative causes Simon supported. Eventually Simon resigned from the board.
Rod MacArthur continued to be unhappy with the foundation and its management. He launched two lawsuits, the first in February 1984 against his fellow board members charging in essence that board members were acting as executives of Bankers Life and were looking out for their own best interest and not the needs of the foundation. His suit also alleged that the foundation was not managing its assets properly. MacArthur further claimed that high fees were being paid to board members for their foundation work and he felt that Bankers Life was not being managed well and had lost value. He requested that the foundation be either dissolved or that the court appoint a receiver to manage and sell Bankers Life.
After Rod MacArthur blocked the sale of the company for $116 million less, the board found a buyer for Bankers Life that was willing to pay $384 million for the company. Although this removed the Bankers Life issue from the suit, there were still Rod MacArthur's allegations that board members and key foundation executives were profiting at the expense of the foundation.
Due to his terminal illness however, Rod MacArthur settled the suit shortly before his death.
Rod MacArthur made two further lasting and important contributions while on the board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. First, he is the person who pushed the Board to offer the famous MacArthur fellowships, also called "Genius Grants". Second, in 1980 at the urging of his son John R. "Rick" MacArthur, then 23, Rod persuaded the Board to partner in creating and funding a Harper's Magazine Foundation to acquire and operate the magazine of the same name. This new entity acquired Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
(which was then losing nearly $2 million per year and was on the verge of ceasing publication) for $250,000. Rick MacArthur eventually took over the foundation that owned Harper's.
Two years before John D. MacArthur died and set up his foundation, Rod MacArthur used his substantial fortune from the Bradford Exchange, to form his own foundation. As of 2004, the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation had $22 million in assets and supports liberal causes, including the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., and the J. Roderick MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern University School of Law
Northwestern University School of Law
The Northwestern University School of Law is a private American law school in Chicago, Illinois. The law school was founded in 1859 as the Union College of Law of the Old University of Chicago. The first law school established in Chicago, it became jointly controlled by Northwestern University in...
Northwestern University School of Law
Northwestern University School of Law
The Northwestern University School of Law is a private American law school in Chicago, Illinois. The law school was founded in 1859 as the Union College of Law of the Old University of Chicago. The first law school established in Chicago, it became jointly controlled by Northwestern University in...
. In the philanthropic world, the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation is known colloquially as "Little Mac," and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is known as "Big Mac".
External links
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Website noting J. Roderick' MacArthur's role in the Genius Grant's
- Independent Article about the founding of the Genius Grants
- letter to the Editor of the New York Times by MacArthur’s Lawyer regarding the Law suits
- Website of the J. Roderick MacArthur Justice Center
- 2004 Chicago Sun Article on the Foundation and J. Roderick MacArthur's early role.