Editing Jack Eckerd

{{short description|American businessman (1913–2004)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Jack Eckerd
| image               = Jack Eckerd.jpg
| caption             = Eckerd, {{Circa|1970}}
| office              = Administrator of the [[General Services Administration]]
| president           = [[Gerald Ford]]
| term_start          = November 21, 1975
| term_end            = February 11, 1977
| predecessor         = [[Arthur F. Sampson]]
| successor           = [[Jay Solomon]]
| birth_name          = 
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1913|5|16}}
| birth_place         = [[Wilmington, Delaware]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|2004|5|19|1913|5|16}}
| death_place         = [[Clearwater, Florida]], U.S.
| other_names         = 
| alma_mater          = [[Culver Academies|Culver Military Academy]]
| spouse              = Ruth Binnicker Swann (1957–2004; his death)
| known_for           = Owner of [[Eckerd Corporation|Eckerd Drugs]]<br />1978 [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Candidate|nominee]] for [[Governor of Florida]]
| occupation          = [[Business]]man
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
}}
'''Jack Eckerd''' (May 16, 1913 – May 19, 2004) was an American businessman and the second generation owner of [[Eckerd Corporation|Eckerd]] chain of drugstores.

==Early life==
Eckerd was born in [[Wilmington, Delaware]], and graduated from [[Culver Academies|Culver Military Academy]] and the [[Boeing School of Aeronautics]]. He was a pilot for the [[U.S. Army Air Forces]] during [[World War II]], in which capacity he received three [[Air Medal]]s and the Presidential Unit Citation. He was also involved in politics and served in both state and national governments for 30 years. In 1968, he developed the first residential adolescent treatment program for troubled boys, founded in [[Brooksville, Florida|Brooksville]], [[Florida]].

==Career==
Starting in the 1950s, he transformed his family's retail drugstore business into one of the leading self-service drugstore chains in the United States, [[Eckerd Drugs]].  His personal finances were estimated in 1975 by ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine at $150 million.

The Eckerd chain, oldest of the major drugstore companies in the U.S., was founded by Jack's father, J. Milton Eckerd, in [[Erie, Pennsylvania]], in 1898.  After serving as a pilot in [[World War II]], Jack Eckerd started a phenomenal expansion of the chain by buying three stores in [[Florida]] in 1952.  The company  went public as Jack Eckerd Corp. in 1961 and when Eckerd sold his shares in 1986, there were about 1,500 stores.

The chain was later sold to [[J.C. Penney]], who built the number of stores to 2,600 before selling to rivals [[CVS Corporation|CVS]] and [[Jean Coutu Group|Jean Coutu]]. Stores in ten states from Florida west to Arizona became CVS; the stores from Georgia north to New York continued as Eckerd Corporation, run by Jean Coutu's US arm along with its New England–based [[Brooks Pharmacy|Brooks]] chain.

In July 2007 Coutu's 1,549 Eckerd stores across the Mid-Atlantic and New England became part of the [[Rite Aid]] drugstore chain, finally ending more than a century of the Eckerd name in drug retailing.

==Family and death==
Eckerd's family included seven children—two from a previous marriage, plus three adopted and two of his own after his marriage to Ruth Eckerd (1922 – July 18, 2006).<ref name=Basse&Fleming>{{cite news |title=Philanthropist of grace and style |work=St. Petersburg Times |date=20 July 2006 |author1=Basse, Craig |author2=John Fleming |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/1080593561.html?dids=1080593561:1080593561&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+20%2C+2006&author=CRAIG+BASSE%2C+JOHN+FLEMING&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=1.A&desc=Philanthropist+of+grace+and+style |access-date=18 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313181419/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/1080593561.html?dids=1080593561:1080593561&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+20%2C+2006&author=CRAIG+BASSE%2C+JOHN+FLEMING&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=1.A&desc=Philanthropist+of+grace+and+style |archive-date=13 March 2007 }}</ref> He died of [[pneumonia]] in 2004, aged 91.<ref name=Basse>{{cite news |title=Drugstore magnate Jack Eckerd dead at 91 |work=St. Petersburg Times |date=19 May 2004 |access-date=18 April 2022 |author=Basse, Craig |url=http://www.sptimes.com/2004/05/19/Tampabay/Drugstore_magnate_Jac.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040624234832/http://www.sptimes.com/2004/05/19/Tampabay/Drugstore_magnate_Jac.shtml |archive-date=24 June 2004 }}</ref><ref name=Silva&Kennedy>{{cite news |title=J. Eckerd, 91, built drugstore chain |author1=Silva, Mark |author2=John Kennedy |date=20 May 2004 |access-date=18 April 2022 |work=South Florida Sun Sentinel |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-eckerd20may20-story.html}}</ref>

==Public service==
In 1975 Eckerd was appointed administrator of the [[General Services Administration]] by [[U.S. President]] [[Gerald R. Ford, Jr.]]<ref name=LATimes>{{cite news |title=Jack Eckerd, 91; built drugstore chain, was philanthropist, politician |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=22 May 2004 |access-date=18 April 2022 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-may-22-me-passings22.1-story.html}}</ref> During his confirmation hearing, Eckerd said that President Ford instructed him (Eckerd) to "...run this agency as clean as a hound's tooth."<ref name=nomination>{{cite book |title=Nomination of Jack M. Eckerd: hearings before the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, Ninety-fourth Congress, first session, on nomination of Jack M. Eckerd, to be Administrator of the General Services Administration, October 31, and November 13, 1975. |author=United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. |year=1976 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ejLQAAAAMAAJ&dq=Nomination+of+Jack+M.+Eckerd+%3A+hearings+before+the+Committee+on+Government+Operations%2C+United+States+Senate%2C+Ninety-fourth+Congress%2C+first+session%2C+on&pg=PP1 |access-date=18 April 2022 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location=Washington, DC}}</ref>{{clarify|date=May 2024}} Ford also named Eckerd to serve on the U.S.O. Board of Governors.  President [[Ronald Reagan]] later named him to the Grace Commission's private sector panel on government cost control. In 1981 Governor [[Bob Graham]] named Eckerd chairman of Florida's Prison Rehabilitative Industries & Diversified Enterprises, Inc. (PRIDE), a unique private sector board that operates all Florida Prison industries.

==Political campaigns==

In [[1970 Florida gubernatorial election|1970]], Eckerd entered the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] gubernatorial primary to challenge incumbent [[governor of Florida|Governor]] [[Claude R. Kirk, Jr.]] A third candidate, [[Florida Senate|State Senator]] [[Louis A. Bafalis|L. A. "Skip" Bafalis]] of [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]], later a [[U.S. representative]], also entered the primary. Eckerd warned that the renomination of Kirk would produce a Republican fiasco in the fall campaign. In a primary endorsement, the ''Miami Herald'' depicted Eckerd as "an efficient campaigner with the ability to bring people together constructively. ... [Eckerd has] a common touch, dedication to high principle, and organizing genius."<ref name="Hathorn1">{{cite journal |author=Hathorn, Billy B. |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=68 |issue=4 |year=1989 |page=414 |title=Cramer v. Kirk: The Florida Republican Schism of 1970 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3900&context=fhq |access-date=7 November 2022}}</ref>

[[William C. Cramer]], the Republican nominee for the [[U.S. Senate]] in 1970, was also at odds with Kirk but was attempting to preserve party unity at the same time. Though he voted in the primary for Eckerd, Cramer took no public position. Kirk received 172,888 primary ballots, but Bafalis's 48,378 votes<ref name="Hathorn2">{{cite journal |author=Hathorn, Billy B. |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=68 |issue=4 |year=1989 |page=415 |title=Cramer v. Kirk: The Florida Republican Schism of 1970 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3900&context=fhq |access-date=7 November 2022}}</ref> were sufficient to require a [[runoff election|runoff]] with Eckerd, who received 137,731. Kirk then prevailed in the runoff, 199,943 to Eckerd's 152,327, after he obtained Bafalis's reluctant endorsement.<ref name="Hathorn2"/>
 
Distraught that Kirk's antics had led to a fratricidal primary, Cramer said that he "customarily" avoided involvement in primaries outside of his own race. Kirk claimed that Cramer assisted Eckerd, whom Kirk assailed as "notorious for his ability to change the scope of the truth. He has an ego problem."<ref name="Hathorn3">{{cite journal |author=Hathorn, Billy B. |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=68 |issue=4 |year=1989 |pages=414–415 |title=Cramer v. Kirk: The Florida Republican Schism of 1970 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3900&context=fhq |access-date=7 November 2022}}</ref> In the campaign rhetoric, Kirk denounced Eckerd for having previously contributed to Democratic candidates, for allegedly running down a [[Cuba]]n fisherman in a yacht race, and for spending lavishly from his personal fortune in the 1970 primary campaign.<ref name="Hathorn2"/> Though he defeated Eckerd, Kirk was then unseated, 57-43 percent, by the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[Reubin Askew]], a state senator from [[Pensacola, Florida|Pensacola]].

Eckerd said that though he had supported Kirk in 1966, he became disappointed and embarrassed with the governor: "I was offended by his public behavior and chagrined that he was a Republican."<ref name="Hathorn4">{{cite journal |author=Hathorn, Billy B. |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=68 |issue=4 |year=1989 |page=416 |title=Cramer v. Kirk: The Florida Republican Schism of 1970 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3900&context=fhq |access-date=7 November 2022}}</ref> Despite Kirk's tactics, Eckerd said "time heals all wounds, and now I chuckle about it." He added that his primary [[runoff election|runoff]] defeat in 1970 probably prolonged his life."<ref>Jack M. Eckerd and Charles P. Conn, ''Eckerd: Finding the Right Prescription'' ([[Old Tappan, New Jersey|Old Tappan]], [[New Jersey]], 1987), pp. 113-119</ref>
 
In 1974, Eckerd was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate against the Democrat [[Richard Stone (politician)|Richard Stone]].<ref name=Silva&Kennedy/> The [[Conservative (politics)|conservative]] vote was divided that year with Dr. John Grady, nominee of [[George C. Wallace]]'s former [[American Independent Party]] siphoning votes from Eckerd. Grady ran again in 1976 as the Republican nominee but lost to the Democratic incumbent [[Lawton Chiles]] of [[Lakeland, Florida|Lakeland]], who had defeated Cramer in 1970.

In 1978, Eckerd defeated U.S. Representative [[Louis Frey, Jr.]], of [[Winter Park, Florida|Winter Park]] to win the Republican gubernatorial nomination, but he lost in the fall to the Democrat [[Bob Graham]] of [[Miami, Florida|Miami]], later a U.S. senator. Kirk ran unsuccessfully for governor again that year, too, but as a Democrat after he failed to qualify as an [[Independent (politics)|Independent]].<ref name="Hathorn5">{{cite journal |author=Hathorn, Billy B. |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=68 |issue=4 |year=1989 |page=424 |title=Cramer v. Kirk: The Florida Republican Schism of 1970 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3900&context=fhq |access-date=7 November 2022}}</ref>

==Philanthropy==
With the millions he made, Eckerd became a philanthropist.
*[[Ruth Eckerd Hall]], a 2,100-seat regional performing arts venue for concerts, plays and civic events in [[Clearwater, Florida]], was named for his wife Ruth Eckerd. It was designed by the Arizona-based [[Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation]] and opened in 1983.
*Florida Presbyterian College in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], changed its name to [[Eckerd College]] in 1972 following a $12.5 million contribution from Jack, who also served for a time as its interim president.<ref name=Nohlgren>{{cite news |author=Nohlgren, Stephen |title=The Eckerd elixer: He thrived at business, flopped at politics and gave away millions. Now 90, Jack Eckerd draws spirit from the children whose lives he touched. |work=The St. Petersburg Times |date=8 June 2003 |access-date=18 April 2022 |url=http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/08/Tampabay/The_Eckerd_elixir.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023202058/http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/08/Tampabay/The_Eckerd_elixir.shtml |archive-date=23 October 2017 }}</ref>
*In 1968, Jack and Ruth Eckerd founded Eckerd Youth Alternatives (known simply as "Eckerd Kids"), a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to strengthening children, families and communities, using an [[Wilderness therapy|Outdoor Therapeutic Program]] model that included opening the first OTP in the state of Florida for boys in 1968 and the first OTP for girls in the southeastern United States. The organization's success with outdoor therapeutic programming soon expanded beyond Florida to several states.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eckerd.org/about-eckerd-kids/who-we-are/history/|title=History - Eckerd Kids|website=Eckerd Kids|language=en-US|access-date=2016-03-25}}</ref> Today, Eckerd serves more than 18,500 children and families annually through a continuum of over 30 behavioral health and child welfare services, ranging from early intervention & prevention to community-based interventions, out-of-home care, and workforce development. Affiliate Programs include [[Paxen Learning]] and CARING for Children.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.eckerd.org/about-eckerd/where-were-going/merging-missions/ |title=Eckerd Merging Missions |access-date=2015-05-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514025745/http://www.eckerd.org/about-eckerd/where-were-going/merging-missions/ |archive-date=2015-05-14 }}</ref>
*National Foundation for Youth, a philanthropic organization underwritten by Jack and Ruth Eckerd in 1994 to support programs benefiting troubled young people, was later merged into the work of Eckerd.

==Writing==
In 1987, Jack wrote his autobiography with [[Paul Conn]], ''Eckerd: Finding the Right Prescription.''<ref name=EckerdYouth>{{cite web |title=Jack Eckerd, drug store pioneer, philanthropist and founder of Eckerd Youth Programs, dies |author=Eckerd Youth Program |website=[[Bloomberg News]] |date=19 May 2004 |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2004-05-19/jack-eckerd-drug-store-pioneer-philanthropist-and-founder-of |access-date=18 April 2022}}</ref><ref name=Fodiman>{{cite journal |journal=Tampa Bay: The Suncoast's Magazine |date=November–December 1988 |page=46 |title=Rx for success |author=Fodiman, Aaron|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpkPKmOfLVwC&dq=%22right+prescription%22+eckerd+%22conn%22&pg=PA46 |access-date=18 April 2022}}</ref> This was followed in 1990 by  ''Enough is Enough,'' a booklet offering solutions to the nation's severe [[prison overcrowding]] crisis.  In 1991 he co-authored ''Why America Doesn't Work'' with [[Charles Colson]], analyzing the decline of the work ethic in America and offering  solutions.<ref name=Marlowe>{{cite news |author=Marlowe, Dick |title=Ethics, values still have spot in corporate America |work=Orlando Sentinel |date=4 September 1993 |access-date=18 April 2022 |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1993-09-05-9309030590-story.html}}</ref><ref name="Chewning">{{cite journal |author=Chewning, Richard C. |title=Review of Why America Doesn't Work by Chuck Colson, Jack Eckerd |journal=Journal of Church and State |volume=35 |issue=1 |year=1993 |pages=179–180|doi=10.1093/jcs/35.1.179 }}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
*[[Air Medal]] 
*[[Presidential Unit Citation (United States)|Presidential Unit Citation]]
*Floridian of the Year by the Orlando Sentinel
*Child Advocate of the Year
*Florida Enterprise Medal
*Mr. Clearwater by the Greater Chamber of Commerce
*LeRoy Collins Lifetime Achievement Award by Leadership Florida
*Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]], 1974<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#business}}</ref>

==References==
<references />

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040605162508/http://sptimes.com/2004/05/20/Tampabay/A_giant_of_generosity.shtml St. Petersburg Times obituary]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150307152718/http://www.sptimes.com/2006/07/19/Tampabay/Ruth_Eckerd_dies.shtml Ruth Eckerd dies] - [[St. Petersburg Times]]
* [http://www.eckerd.org/ Eckerd.org]

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Edward Gurney]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nominee for [[List of United States Senators from Florida|U.S. Senator]] from [[Florida]]<br />([[Classes of United States Senators|Class 3]])|years=[[1974 United States Senate election in Florida|1974]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Paula Hawkins (politician)|Paula Hawkins]]}}
{{s-bef|before=Jerry Thomas}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nominee for [[List of governors of Florida|Governor of Florida]]|years=[[1978 Florida gubernatorial election|1978]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Skip Bafalis]]}}
{{s-gov}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Arthur F. Sampson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Administrator of the [[General Services Administration]]|years=1975–1977}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Jay Solomon]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{RepNomFlGov}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eckerd, Jack}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:Administrators of the General Services Administration]]
[[Category:American retail chief executives]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Florida]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1974 United States elections]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1978 United States elections]]
[[Category:Culver Academies alumni]]
[[Category:Eckerd College]]
[[Category:Florida Republicans]]
[[Category:Ford administration personnel]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Delaware]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Florida]]
[[Category:Politicians from Clearwater, Florida]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Tampa, Florida]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Wilmington, Delaware]]
[[Category:Presidents of Eckerd College]]
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II]]
[[Category:Politicians from Tampa, Florida]]
[[Category:Carter administration personnel]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Air Medal]]