As many of you have heard, our longtime Academy friend and Chairman Emeritus John W. Hyland Jr. (known as Jack), passed away last Friday, August 11. The AAR Board, staff, and community are saddened by this loss. Jack originally joined the Board of Trustees in 1978, serving as Board Chair from 1982 to 1993. He was also a member of the McKim & Morgan Society. In November 1996, Jack was a recipient of the Academy’s Centennial Medal.
Jack was born in 1938 in Detroit, Michigan. He majored in theoretical physics at Williams College, graduating in 1959; and from Harvard Business School, graduating in 1961. A founding partner of Media Advisory Partners, Jack’s investment banking career included senior positions with financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley & Co, Warburg Paribas Becker, PaineWebber, and McFarland Dewey & Co.
In addition to his service to the Academy, Jack was Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Teachers College, Columbia University. He was also director of the College Art Association, vice president and director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, and a trustee and treasurer of the National Building Museum.
A prolific writer and gardener, Jack authored two notable books: The Moses Virus (2014), a fictional thriller set in Rome; and Evangelism’s First Modern Media Star, The Life of Reverend Bill Stidger (2002), in which he examined the life of his grandfather, the famous preacher Bill Stidger, who foresaw the possibilities of modern-day media to expand evangelical work. Jack also wrote several articles for publications such as the New York Times on his travels in India, Libya, and Bhutan, and for the magazine Fine Gardening on the garden at his beloved weekend home in Millerton, New York.
The Academy offers its condolences to his partner, Larry Wente; to Karen Conant Hyland; and to his children, Liza, Jonathan, and Susannah. He will be greatly missed.