Jack C. Massey

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

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]

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]

His first wife, Elizabeth Polak died in 1969.[1] He later married Alyne Queener.[1] He had a daughter, Barbara Massey Rogers and three grandchildren.[1]

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.[8] His obituary in The Palm Beach Daily News called him "a legend in American business."[3]

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