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Inspirational Stories of Women
Who Made a Difference!
November, 2007
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Welcome to History's
Women!
Thanks to Anne Adams for providing today's profile of
philanthropist Joan Kroc. I have a personal interest in this
story since she donated such a large sum to The Salvation Army.
She left a wonderful legacy!
 Anne
has written a wonderful ebook that we are selling here at
History's Women. First of all a Wife: Sketches of
America's First Ladies sells for $9.99 on our sister site
PC Publications. For the rest of November, 2007 you can
purchase it for $5.99 by using our
special
order form
Enjoy the
issue!
Patti
If you have trouble reading
this issue, you can view it
online.
MEMORABLE QUOTE
"...It is more blessed
to give than to receive. "
~Acts 20:35
History in the Making
 Joan
Kroc
Philanthropist
By Anne Adams
Some people are fully convinced
that major corporations – such as McDonalds Restaurants – are
more intent on squeezing a profit from a neighborhood than
returning anything to the community. Yet this was not the case
with Joan Kroc, who used her McDonald’s fortune to benefit
innumerable people, including some who may never have visited a
McDonald’s restaurant.
Joan Beverly Mansfield was born
in August, 1928 in St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of a
railroad worker and an accomplished violinist. After completing
her education at a music school, at age 15 she began teaching
piano to more than 35 students, and also playing the piano at a
local music store. Then at age 17 Joan married Roland Smith, a
returning Navy war veteran, and they had a baby the next year.
Several years later while
playing the piano and organ at a local restaurant she caught the
eye of McDonald’s entrepreneur Ray Kroc. “I was stunned by her
blonde beauty,” he said later.
The couple became close and
remained so until 1968 when after both were divorced they
married and though Kroc was 26 years her senior, Joan thought
him many years younger because he was so active. When Kroc
purchased the San Diego Padres baseball team in 1974 they moved
to that city.
In the 1950s, Ray Kroc had been
a sales representative for a milkshake machine company and as he
called on the McDonald brothers’ hamburger restaurant in San
Bernardino, California he was impressed by their fast-sale
format. With the hope that he could sell as many as eight mixing
machines to new restaurants with that format, he partnered with
the brothers and began to expand the operation. He bought out
the brothers in 1961, and turned McDonalds into the
multi-million dollar business it became. He died in January,
1984.
Before his death Joan had
already began her philanthropy when she established 1976 through
the Kroc Foundation, Operation Cork, to sponsor programs to
inform health professionals about issues concerning alcoholism.
After her husband’s death, Mrs. Kroc assumed a new role as
community minded philanthropist, and she began with the
Kroc-owned San Diego Padres. In 1980 she launched what was
thought to be the first major league baseball employee aid
program assisting drug abusers. Yet according to one report, her
generosity was just continuing her husband’s example. “Ray was
once asked in an interview why he gave so much of his wealth
away,” she said, “He said, ‘I’ve never seen a Brinks truck
following a hearse. Have you?’”
Yet Mrs. Kroc’s assistance was
often so low-key that recipients were not aware of her identity.
In 1997 she anonymously donated millions to North Dakota and
Minnesota flood victims. Leaving her own car behind, she toured
the area in a van; and later distributed $2000 to victim
families, who knew her only as “the angel.” “I’ll tell you, that
was really a godsend,” said one woman about the donation, which
her family used to buy a trailer where they lived till their
home was rebuilt. Only when reporters traced her private plane
was Mrs. Kroc identified.
She later provided an
unsolicited donation to a San Diego charity that opened a
facility to house and assist the homeless. According to the head
of the charity, the St. Vincent de Paul Joan Kroc Center was
perhaps the first time she ever permitted her name to appear on
a building.
Yet though Mrs. Kroc
occasionally allowed use of her name for similar projects, she
did not seek public attention often because she wanted to
attract other donors. “She turned down interview requests with
Fortune and Forbes [magazines], but talked to a small community
newspaper because she thought it would help The Salvation Army
project here,” said a spokesman.
This referred to Mrs. Kroc’s
support of The Salvation Army community center in San Diego that
opened in 2002. She first contacted the Salvation Army about the
center after she toured the neighborhood and saw the need for
such a facility. She donated $87 million - considered to be the
largest donation in Salvation Army history to create what was
known as The Salvation Army’s Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community
Center. It was designed to expose children to arts, educational
programs and sports.
Mrs. Kroc died in 2003 and left
a remarkable legacy of using her resources to benefit others.
Hers was a life summed up by a former Padres ballplayer. “She
did things her way, not for the recognition or other
considerations but because it was the right thing to do.”
Anne Adams, a
freelance writer living in Houston, Texas, is the author of a
new e-book “First of All, a Wife: Sketches of American First
Ladies,” available from
PCPublications.org. She has published in Christian
and secular publications, taught history on the junior college
level,
and spoken at national and local writers' conferences. Her book
"Brittany, Child of Joy", an account of her severely retarded
daughter,
was issued by Broadman Press in 1987. She also publishes an
encouragement newsletter "Rainbows Along the Way."
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|
History's Women Review
|
 |
As a suburbanite who is deeply concerned about social justice, I
often feel like a walking oxymoron. Or sometimes, just a moron.
How, exactly, do you “act justly and love mercy” as Micah 6:8
says we ought to?
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