Remarks by James P. Jenkins ’66 on George P. Jenkins ’32
October 17, 2009

My father died peacefully at age 94 surrounded by his family, but he lived a long, very interesting and happy life. He was a man of many accomplishments and a small ego; he rarely talked about what he had done and didn’t seek publicity. I have always been immensely proud of him.

He was born in 1915 in Clarksburg, W.V., but grew up in Glen Ridge, N.J, leaving for his senior year at Blair Academy. Eventually, he devoted much of his time and resources to Blair, joining the Board of Trustees in 1959 and serving as Chairman from 1978 to 1986. He presided over the Board during some difficult years in the 1970s, so Blair’s strong emergence in the last 10 years was a source of great pride to him. He remained on the Board as Emeritus, attending regular meetings at Blair until he could no longer walk, having spent 50 years in total serving on the Board.

He joined the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in the investment department right out of Harvard Business School in 1938, but his career was interrupted by World War II. My father met my mother while serving in the Army. After secretly dating, my southern mother married this Yankee from N.J. Later in life, my father would develop a reputation for intelligent decision making and keen investment skills, but back in 1945 he probably made the smartest decision and best investment of his entire life when he married Mother.           

After the War, my father rejoined the Met, where he would remain until he retired in 1980. His career advanced steadily: He became the CIO in 1962, a director in 1964, and ultimately chairman of the board in 1973.

My father was an investment guy. As The New York Times pointed out, he was instrumental in the development of the private placement as one of the most important vehicles for institutional investment in the fixed income market in America. During his nearly 20 years as CIO, he made $55 billion in long-term investments for the Met in a variety of major companies and to leading entrepreneurs, ultimately becoming one of the most important and influential institutional investors in America’s capital markets during the 1960s and 1970s. The names of the people and the companies he financed reads like a who’s who of American industry at the time: George Moore and Walter Wriston at Citibank; Bethlehem Steel; Greek ship owners Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos; American ship owner D. K. Ludwig; Leonard Goldenson at Paramount Theaters to form ABC; Leon Hess’s acquisition of Amerada Oil Co to form Amerada Hess; Peter Grace at W. R. Grace; Trammell Crow’s real estate empire in Texas; and Publix Supermarkets owner coincidentally named George Jenkins, to help him grow that company into one of the biggest private companies in America today.

Following retirement from the Met at age 65, he moved over to W. R. Grace, where for the next 15 years, he managed the Grace pension fund assets. It was during this time that Peter Grace persuaded him to join in a national effort to lower government costs. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed my father to the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control - known as the Grace Commission - where he served overseeing the work of one of the sub-committees for two years. He retired fully in 1995, at age 80.

My father was also involved with various local organizations, including Bloomfield Presbyterian Church, Bloomfield College, Bloomfield Savings Bank, Glen Ridge Board of Education, the Presbyterian Church Board of Pensions (in Philadelphia), the Presbyterian Lay Committee and even serving for a while as a trustee of the University of Southern California.

His career was the work of his lifetime, but he was also a father, and one who was always there when any of us needed him, whether for little league baseball coaching, help with our homework, or later, for advice on investment banking, on investments or on Blair Academy matters. And he was a tough task-master. There were two ways to do things: his way or the wrong way. So we all pretty much did things his way, except maybe for Bob, who occasionally did things the wrong way. He was always looking out for us, wherever we were, whatever we were doing, regardless of our ages. He wanted us to be safe, to be secure and to be happy. That was his selfless goal for his family and it remains his legacy to us.

Posted 10/27/2009

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