Jay Van Andel

Jay Van Andel

Jay Van Andel (June 3, 1924 – December 7, 2004) was an American businessman best known as co-founder of the Amway Corporation, along with Richard DeVos. He also served as Chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1979–1980 and later as a member of its Senior Council from 1980-1985.

He was also known for funding religious missions and conservative political causes, including the Republican Party.

Military service

Van Andel was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After high school, a recruiter persuaded him to enlist. He enlisted in 1942 in the United States Army Air Corps as a private and came out four years later as a first lieutenant.

Amway

Van Andel co-founded Amway with Rich DeVos in 1959.

Conservative contributor

From 1985, Van Andel was a member of the Heritage Foundation, and was at the time of his death a trustee of the traditionally conservative Hillsdale College. A strong supporter of the Republican Party, Van Andel contributed $2 million to the re-election campaign of President George W. Bush, and $475,000 to the Michigan State Republican Party (mostly for state legislature candidates) in 2004 alone. He was noted for his friendship with former President Gerald R. Ford, a native of Grand Rapids, who lamented his death and called him "a great family man and a worldwide leader in the business arena". Steve Forbes wrote about Van Andel, "Whether in business or philanthropy, Van Andel understood that the primary goal was to serve the needs and wants of other people. He exmplified the best of America." Jay Van Andel served as a director of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to Amway, Van Andel pursued many other business ventures throughout his life. He served as chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He was particularly interested in leaving his mark on the city of Grand Rapids, and his name appears on landmarks throughout the city. After purchasing the 65-year-old Pantlind Hotel in 1978, he and DeVos had it rebuilt with a 29-story tower and reopened as the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.^{[citation needed]}

He donated substantial funds to build the Van Andel Museum Center to house the Grand Rapids Public Museum in 1994. He donated $11.5 million towards the $75 million cost of Van Andel Arena downtown. Since he and his wife suffered from serious medical problems later in life, he established the Van Andel Institute (devoted to medical research and education), building its headquarters in Grand Rapids at a cost of $60 million, and pledging $2 billion, which was most of his personal estate, to medical research.^{[citation needed]}

His wife Betty preceded him in death on 18 January 2004, at the age of 82. A sufferer of Alzheimer's disease, she died at their Peter Island home in the Caribbean.^{[citation needed]}

A member of the Christian Reformed Church, Van Andel had a lifelong interest in Christian causes, and funded many religious ventures, including the construction of the Van Andel Creation Research Center (VACRC) experiment station in Chino Valley, Arizona operated by Creation Research Society.

Mr. Van Andel was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1998.^{[citation needed]}

References

• This article contains content from HierarchyPedia article Jay Van Andel, used here under the GNU Free Documentation License.